ASSESSMENT OF CARDIOLOGISTS’ AWARENESS OF THE EFFECTS OF AIR POLLUTION ON CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE IN VIETNAM AND THE PHILIPPINESPLENARY:

 

Raouf Naguib           

BSc, MSc, DIC, PhD, CEng, CSci, SMIEEE, MIET, MIPEM

IOCORE Research & Consultancy International

and Liverpool Hope University, UK

 

Abstract

In order to achieve a significant reduction in mortality and morbidity rates from cardiovascular disease (CVD) in South East Asia, there is a need to clinically and scientifically investigate unusual risk factors that may be linked to the disease. Given the dire state of ambient air pollution (AP) in this region, it appears that the awareness of the clinical impact of AP on CVD, in general, is rather superficial and not commensurate with the significance of the issue.

 

This lecture presents a critical assessment of a sample of 321 cardiologists from two representative South East Asian countries, namely Vietnam and the Philippines, in relation to their knowledge of the potential links between AP and CVD, with emphasis on arrhythmia, atherosclerosis, coagulation, heart failure and myocardial infarction. Qualitative and quantitative analyses are presented which enable to draw conclusions that reflect the situation in South East Asia, and lead to a critical appraisal of whether such risks are taken into account during CVD diagnosis and patient management. The lecture also provides an appraisal of the wider regulatory environmental health frameworks in those countries.

 

 

About the Speaker

Raouf Naguib is the Director of BIOCORE Research & Consultancy International and a Visiting Professor at Liverpool Hope University, UK. Prior to this he was Professor of Biomedical Computing and Head of the Biomedical Computing and Engineering Technologies Applied Research Group at Coventry University, UK. He has published over 360 journal and conference papers and reports in many aspects of health informatics, environmental health, social health, biomedical and digital signal processing, biomedical image processing and the applications of artificial intelligence and evolutionary computation in cancer research. He has also published a book on digital filtering, and co-edited a second book on the applications of artificial neural networks in cancer diagnosis, prognosis and patient management. He was awarded the Fulbright Cancer Fellowship in 1995-96 when he carried out research in the USA, at the University of Hawaii in Mãnoa, on the applications of artificial neural networks in breast cancer diagnosis and prognosis.

 

Prof Naguib is a member of several national and international research committees and boards, and has served on the Administrative Committee of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS), representing Region 8, and the Society’s Distinguished Lecturers Committee and Infostructure Committee, as well as the UK EPSRC Peer Review College. He also represented the IEEE-EMBS on the IEEE-USA Committee on Communications and Information Policy. He currently serves on several international review panels, including the European Commission, Qatar National Research Fund, UAE National Research Foundation and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI).

 

In 2003, Prof Naguib was appointed as Adjunct Research Professor at the University of Carleton, Ottawa, Canada, and in 2005 he was appointed as Honorary Professor at De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines.