KUALA LUMPUR — The National Cancer Society Malaysia (NCSM) is calling on the government to adopt a comprehensive national co-screening strategy, warning that millions of citizens are living with undiagnosed, deeply interconnected health risks affecting their heart, kidneys, and metabolic systems.
These closely linked conditions—scientifically classified as cardio-renal-metabolic (CRM) diseases—include cardiovascular disorders, chronic kidney disease, and metabolic illnesses such as type 2 diabetes. Because these conditions share overlapping metabolic pathologies, they frequently manifest together, with each separate diagnosis significantly increasing the clinical severity and progression speed of the others.
Massive Hidden Burden in Underserved Communities
The urgent push for policy reform is backed by newly released field findings from the NCSM-Boehringer Ingelheim Saring@Komuniti Project. Conducted with structural support from the Ministry of Health, the public outreach initiative conducted medical evaluations for 5,000 individuals across underserved pockets of the Klang Valley.
The diagnostic data exposed a staggering hidden burden of chronic disease among the participants,
- Universal Risk Profile – An overwhelming 97.8% of all screened individuals were found to have at least one active CRM risk factor.
- Weight Management Crises – More than four in 10 participants (41.3%) were clinically obese, while an additional 28.8% were categorized as overweight.
- Glycaemic Dysregulation – A high concentration of blood sugar abnormalities was recorded, with 34.5% of the cohort presenting with pre-diabetes and 35.1% living with full-blown diabetes.
This diagnostic profile arrives amid a decade-long surge in public health failures. NCSM noted that the domestic prevalence of chronic kidney disease expanded from 9.1% in 2011 to 15.5% in 2019. Compounding this crisis, the total number of Malaysian patients requiring resource-intensive dialysis treatments has more than tripled over the last two decades, threatening to overwhelm municipal healthcare infrastructure.
Ending the Fragmented Care Model
According to medical experts, the core failure of the current public health framework lies in its siloed approach, which routinely manages heart, kidney, and blood sugar issues as entirely separate clinical pipelines. This structural fragmentation means medical practitioners regularly miss critical opportunities to spot overlapping medical threats early. Furthermore, disjointed hospital referral channels and inconsistent patient follow-ups mean that even when a screening yields abnormal results, vital therapeutic interventions are frequently delayed.
To mitigate these operational shortfalls, the policy recommendations urge a immediate expansion of integrated co-screening programs nationwide. The strategy seeks to embed standardized CRM risk matrices directly into routine, entry-level health checks, supported by fortified digital tracking networks to ensure seamless care continuity.
NCSM Managing Director Dr Murallitharan Munisamy emphasized that Malaysia has a vital window of opportunity to shift from reactive, single-disease management to an integrated care continuum. He noted that while expanding early detection programs is an essential first step, it must be paired with coordinated follow-up protocols and unified long-term care pathways to meaningfully lower the nation’s chronic disease burden.
