17-May-16 District-level hospitals in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City are now using more advanced techniques and treatment, often performing at the level of city hospitals. The Thu Duc District Hospital has successfully performed for the first time the non-surgical treatment, transarterial chemoembolization, on a patient with a malignant liver tumour. [image: tuoitre.vn]

16-May-16 China is to increase the number of organ transplant hospitals from 169 to about 300 by 2020. There are currently about 10,000 surgeries performed annually. However, there are 30,000 patients awaiting transplants. In contrast, the United States has more than 300 transplant centers, performing the most transplants worldwide. [image: Newsgd.com]

16-May-16 A group of specialist medicos is seeking to counter self-diagnosis and make tertiary medical services more available by providing consultations online. They have established Docto, Australia’s first telemedicine hospital, and have plans to take the business global. The venture has recruited some 50 specialists to its cause and has an agreement with specialist underwriting agency AHI. [image: Gold Coast Bulletin]

13-May-16 With the Philhealth mandate to cover 100% of the population, demand for quality, affordable healthcare is on the rise. The largest private provider, Metro Pacific, counts eleven hospitals with 3,000 beds. A relatively new entrant is the Qualimed Health Network, owned by Mercado Hospital Group and Ayala Land. Qualimed has seven facilities with four more scheduled to open in 2016. [image: Inquirer]

12-May-16 70% of novice nurses in Taiwan are given less than one month of training before officially beginning their work, with 40% given less than two weeks of training. Wu Chia-ling, an executive director of the Taiwan Radical Nurse Union, argued that the lack of training damages patients' interests and puts the nurses under extremely heavy pressure. [image: Focus Taiwan]