Izah Azahari
More than 200 registrants from 11 Southeast Asian nations participated in the first-ever Heart Heroes ASEAN International Webinar over the weekend.
The Heart Heroes ASEAN is a non-profit organisation that aims to improve health management and disease prevention through the usage of technology and telemedicine throughout the region.
The first day was hosted by Project Manager Muhammad Rifhan Zuhair Ideris, and was opened by Senior Environmental Health Specialist of the Institute of Population, Health and Development in Hanoi, Vietnam Vu Le Tu.
Vu highlighted cardiovascular disease, which can take away productive individuals at their prime and underlined the importance of a multi-sectoral collaborative approach to tackle the issue.
An introduction to the Heart Heroes ASEAN activities and newly developed multilingual Heart Heroes ASEAN mobile application continued the event, followed by heart health management discussions on the risk factors and different ways to reduce the chance of developing cardiovascular disease among different age groups. The segment was led by cardiologist sub-specialising in interventional cardiology Dr Muhammad Fadil and moderated by Kelvin Supriami.
The second session on the first day, co-moderated by Jardene Marie G De Leon and Leo Christian V Lauzon from the Philippines, saw mental health and support discussions (‘Hear to Heart: Listening to the mind when the heart is in trouble’) by Dr Gia Sison, practising medical doctor specialising in occupational medicine and host of G Talks on CNN.
The webinar’s second day, moderated by Siti Nur Syahmina binti Zaini from Brunei Darussalam, continued with another session on heart health management by Dr Muhammad Fadil focussing on the importance of monitoring the heart using the simplest technology.
A fireside chat on fitness and nutrition delivered by internationally certified fitness coach Maria Taha and moderated by Adi Rusydi Omar from Brunei was also held, during which they discussed topics ranging from simple home exercises and the different types of nutrition that may improve heart health.
