Reset Health UK, a healthtech and parent company of Reset Health Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., was founded by Dr David Wong, a Malaysian entrepreneur and Professor Dr Barbara McGowan, a renowned expert in the field of obesity and endocrinology. Professor Dr Dipesh Patel, another expert in obesity and diabetes joined the team soon after. Aside from their respective key roles in King’s College and University College of London, both are lead investigators for major pharmaceutical companies in the United Kingdom.
David - who founded many publicly listed medical companies including Hypoguard (one of the world’s leading blood glucose monitoring companies) - was compelled to research diabetes remission when he was diagnosed with prediabetes. From his Hypoguard days, David certainly knew about diabetes and its potential complications such as stroke, kidney failure, blindness and amputation.
Leveraging his strong connections with London medical schools, and armed with his knowledge of conventional diabetes care and precision lifestyle medicine, David searched for an evidence-based medical protocol which led him to co-founding Reset Health with Barbara and Dipesh.
They gathered the best minds in obesity and diabetes to develop a medical protocol that could reverse type 2 diabetes and obesity without medication. They also recruited technology experts and used artificial intelligence to produce software and predictive analysis tools to help fine tune their protocol.
They named this platform Roczen®, describing it as “Bariatric Surgery without the surgery while triggering similar physiologic, cellular and hormonal changes, leading to clinically significant results”, or as David jokingly calls Roczen®, his best girlfriend.
Roczen®, an online-first, doctor-led and mentor-powered active lifestyle management protocol, obtains patient information such as blood markers, hormone levels, psychological profiles and biometrics before prescribing a personalised treatment plan that includes what to eat, and even more importantly, when to eat as well as addressing other factors like sleep, stress, cognitive behaviour therapy and movement.
Roczen® launched in the UK four years ago, right in the middle of the COVID pandemic, as a clinical service evaluation (CSE) for the doctors and nurses working in the National Health Services (NHS). The Roczen® protocol was subsequently launched commercially for the staff of London Underground, Network Rail, His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Services, as well as various corporate companies.
Data from the CSE showed that in the first 12 weeks of starting Roczen®, the average weight loss for the 653 adult participants was 9kg and led to significant improvement in health outcomes. There was an amazing reduction (8.5%) in HbA1c (the measurement of Type 2 diabetes status), with 60.2% of participants taken off their diabetes medication. An unexpected and welcomed mental health outcome was that the CSE results showed 62% reduction in depression and 33% reduction in anxiety.
Roczen® is now recognised as an effective evidence-based protocol and has been presented at international medical congresses including the European Congress on Obesity, the International Congress of Endocrinology and the UK Congress on Obesity. Research work by Reset Health clinicians have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the British Medical Journal, and most recently, January 2024, in the Obesity Science and Practice Journal.
In August 2023, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) approved Roczen® as a digital programme for use by the NHS to deliver specialist weight management services to support the use of medication in England.
To fulfil his lifelong ambition to help his birth country, David set up Reset Health Malaysia as the first clinic outside the UK, led by May Sun, Country Director and Dr Nik Adzrul Ariff, Head of Clinical Services.Malaysia has one of the highest rates of population living with obesity and diabetes. According to the National Health and Morbidity Survey published in 2019 by the Ministry of Health Malaysia, 1 out of 2 people are living with excess weight issues and 1 out of 5 people are living with diabetes. The cost of treating these chronic diseases is also alarming. WHO and MOH released a joint statement in 2022 revealing that the government has spent close to RM10 billion to treat diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer - all known complications due to obesity, and close to RM4 billion of this was spent to treat diabetes alone.
Reset Health Malaysia worked with Datuk Dr Zanariah Hussein, Consultant Endocrinologist and Head of the Endocrinology Unit at Hospital Putrajaya, to launch a CSE at Hospital Putrajaya in April 2022. The results of this CSE mirrored the UK study and the outcomes were presented at the Malaysian Association for the Study of Obesity (MASO) during its 2023 Scientific Conference in September. The one year data showed the average weight loss was approximately 7.2kg, with 69% achieving a greater than 5% weight loss and within this subgroup, 39% lost more than 10% of their weight.
According to Malaysia’s 2023 Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG) in Obesity Management, a modest weight loss of 5% to 10% is associated with improvement in blood pressure and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. This is even more significant for those with a higher BMI where moderate weight loss is associated with improvement in glucose, triglycerides and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels. These CPG guidelines highlight the significance of Roczen®’s Malaysian CSE outcomes.
Armed with the remarkable outcomes of the HPJ CSE, Reset Health Malaysia launched Roczen® into the private sector, as well as government agencies. Reset Health Malaysia also partnered with Third Party Administrators to provide an affordable solution to corporate employees. Of significance, employers can utilise their HRDCorp funds for the Roczen® protocol.
Enrolling at-risk employees onto Roczen® will result in substantial savings from healthcare expenses that companies have been bearing. Guided by Roczen® clinicians and mentors, many employees have been able to reduce and even stop their medications. Roczen® clinicians work hand-in-hand with the employees’ primary physicians to achieve these desired health outcomes.
Roczen® Plus, a new product which combines medication with the current Roczen® protocol, will soon be introduced in Malaysia. Reset Health Malaysia recognises that some individuals may require medication to jumpstart their journey towards a healthier and more fulfilled life.
For more info, visit www.roczen.com or tune into Malaysiakini’s Live-Talkshow on 29th February 2024 @ 9.00pm featuring Datuk Dr Zanariah and Dr Nik Adzrul by registering HERE.
This article is provided by Reset Health Malaysia.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.
