A Framework for Integrated Postnatal Care Services for Traditional Malay Medicine and Modern Medicine

This paper shall propose aframework to integrate the services of Traditional Malay Medicine (TMM) with modern medicine in the field of postnatal care. A semi structured interview was conducted towards twelve postnatal care practitioners in the traditional malay medicine and modern medicine field and one public hospital in Malaysia. The current framework shows that both medicine systems are being treated in isolation of each other. MyPostnatal framework is proposed to integrate the services of these medicine systems via electronic health records.Patient can access integrated healthcare services seamlessly and holistically without isolation. Healthcare providers shall also benefit from the standardization of information exchange with other healthcare providers. Introduction Traditional and Complementary Medicine (T&CM) has been gaining acknowledgement and acceptance all over the world. T&CM is an invaluable treasure and has been developed over the course of thousands of years in the quest for human wellbeing. It is a form of healthrelated practice designed to prevent, treat, or manage illness and preserve the mental and physical well-being of individuals. This practice includes traditional Malay medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, traditional Indian medicine, homeopathy and complementary therapies, and excludes medical or dental practices by registered medical or dental practitioner (Health, 2007). There are nine integrated public hospitals which practice T&CM in Malaysia. They are Kepala Batas Hospital in Pulau Pinang, Putrajaya Hospital in Putrajaya, Sultan Ismail Hospital in Johor Bharu, Duchess of Kent in Sabah, SultanahNurZahirah Hospital in 4940 Raja Rina Raja Ikram, MohdKhanapiAbdGhani. Kuala Terengganu, Sarawak General Hospital, Port Dickson Hospital in Negeri Sembilan, SultanahBahiyah Hospital in AlorSetar Kedah and Cameron Highlands Hospital (Abuduli & Aljunid, 2011). These hospitals practice traditional Malay massage, acupuncture, herbal oncology and postnatal massage (Health, 2007). Traditional Malay massage and acupuncture are used for chronic pain and stroke; herbal oncology is used for complement treatment with allopathy therapy whereas postnatal massage is used to relieve muscle cramps and fatigue after labour(Abuduli & Aljunid, 2011) . Even though Traditional Malay Medicine is practiced in nine hospitals, majority of the TMM practice is limited to Traditional Malay massage. However, the Traditional & Complementary Medicine (T&CM) Unit of Putrajaya Hospital and Johor Baru's Sultan Ismail Hospital midwifery care practices hot compress or bertungku and herbal body wrap or bengkungand Malay postnatal massage (Barakbah, 2007). Traditional Malay massage is part of the processes involved in Malay Confinement. Malay Confinement is essentially an all-encompassing process that aims to preserve the health and femininity of Malay women. According to Datin Sharifah Anisah, founder of Nona Roguy (now NR) and author of “EnsiklopediaPerbidananMelayu” (Encyclopedia of Malay Midwifery) (Barakbah, 2007), confinement practices stem from the belief that the womb is a woman's life force and affects her overall health (Barakbah, 2007). There are also many Malay Confinement centres for mothers to rehabilitate and rest after childbirth, including Confinement lady services providing Malay Confinement services from home. Today, many urban new mothers in the Malay community find themselves unable to fully observe the practices of the traditional Confinement, mainly because they lack the family and community support that made Malay Confinement possible. However, some practices are still observed by many Malay women. Some have been adapted to suit more urban lifestyles. Among the Malay Confinement commonly practiced are bengkung (the traditional wrap or girdle), postnatal massage, jamu (traditional made supplements), hot compress and herbal baths(Barakbah, 2007). These complete Malay Confinement practises are not fully implemented by Malaysia’s official healthcare system or government hospitals. However it is supported by many private and individual confinement care services that provide this alternative for new mothers. Thus, there is an isolation of Malay Confinement implementation in the government or official healthcare system and private hospitals or wellness centres. Private hospitals that implement midwives for home visits also would usually outsource the Malay Confinement practices to individual midwives without proper documentation of health records. The Problem And Its Context The technology that has flourished in the TMM field are pharmaceutical products derived from common herbs used (Abd Jalil, Shuid, & Muhammad, 2012; Keat & Boon, 2007) to provide nutrition and help the body heal during postnatal treatment. Other technology related development are the use of medical devices to measure key indicators such as blood pressure, pulse, and temperature during Malay postnatal A Framework for Integrated Postnatal Care Services for Traditional 4941 treatment (TCM Division, 2009) in pilot hospitals. However, literature regarding development of information technology to support TMM was unable to be obtained in this study which leaves a huge research gap to be filled in this domain. Figure 1 shows that there is no overlap between the information technology and TMM subset, implying that opportunities of research are huge to leverage information technology in the TMM domain. Figure 1: Information Technology gap in the domain of Traditional Malay Medicine This research shall attempt to reduce this information technology gap by proposing a framework to integrate modern medicine and Traditional Malay Medicine in a selected research domain i.e. postnatal care. Methodology A semi structured interview was conducted via participants in the postnatal care treatment – nurses, doctors and Traditional Malay Medicine practitioners. The questions of structured interview can be referred at Appendix 1 Section B. The main questions that were included interview are 1) Are computerized systems used to manage Malay postnatal services? Please specify the scope of computerized systems used if any. 2) What is the current procedure for a patient to undergo Malay postnatal treatment? 3) What factors encourage modern medical practitioners refer patients to undergo Malay postnatal treatment? 4) What factors will trigger Malay postnatal patients to refer to medical practitioners? A literature review was also conducted on existing frameworks available. Amongst the main reference is the Malay Postnatal Care Practices in Hospital Setting developed by Ministry of Health, Malaysia(TCM Division, 2009). A total of 12 interviews were conducted. Structured interviews involved participants that represent 1 hospital, 3 nurses, 3 medical officers and 4 Traditional Malay Medicine practitioners. The population of Traditional Malay Medicine Information Technology Traditional Malay Medicine Modern Medicine Postnatal care 4942 Raja Rina Raja Ikram, MohdKhanapiAbdGhani. practitioners in Malaysia is unable to be accurately established as these providers are not entirely regulated and may only exist though referral by neighborhood or family contacts. Participants Quantity Case Study Hospital Obstretician and Gynaecology Specialist 1 TMM Practitioner 1 Modern Medicine Nurse 3 Doctor 3 Traditional Malay Medicine Traditional Malay practitioners 4 Total interviews 12 Table 1: Participants involved in the data collection process Table 1 shows the breakdown of the interview participants involved in the study. The hospital selected are one of the 2 pilot public hospitals in Malaysia that implement Traditional Malay postnatal massage and postnatal care as part of the services in their traditional and complementary medicine unit facility. Nurses involved in this study are well trained in the field of maternity care. Medical officers selected in this study consists of mothers who are experienced in implementing Malay postnatal practices during their self-confinement period. Traditional Malay Medicine practitioners involved all have a minimum of 10 years of experience in Malay postnatal care services and their services are well sought in their respective residence communities. Results The result of this study has brought very important insights on the current framework implementation of Traditional Malay Medicine and modern medicine in the field of postnatal care. Modern medicine practitioner can only assess a patient’s suitability to undergo TMM postnatal treatment, and may not be able to suggest in detail the precise treatment for the patient unless there are TMM treatment facilities available in the hospital and TMM practitioner. However, the TMM treatment services in public hospitals are still scarce and many still seek TMM postnatal treatment at individual or private centres. Thus there is a need to integrate both TMM treatment at home or private centres and in healthcare facilities by leveraging information technology. The current framework can be displayed as per Figure 2. A Framework for Integrated Postnatal Care Services for Traditional 4943 Figure 2 Isolation of patient consultation health records based on the SOAP model. Figure 2 shows the isolation of patient consultation when they seek treatment from either a TMM practitioner or a modern medicine practitioner. The current framework can be divided into four process steps: Subjective, Objective, Assessment and Plan. A guideline on the elements of the model can be referred to in Table 2.