E-BULLETIN FPSK- NOVEMBER 2019

MEDIC@UMS BULLETIN

If you can’t Fly, Then RUN,
If you can’t RUN, then WALK,
If you can’t WALK, then CRAWL,
But by all means, KEEP MOVING

-Martin Luther King Jr

November 2019

Table of Contents

Editorial Notes

-Dean’s Message

01 Academic

-The Mega Assembly

02 Internationalization

-International Elective Student

03 Research & Innovation

-First Innovation Talk

04 Clinical Service

-2nd BQOL Conference

05 Public Health

-IBPHC 2019

06 Student Affairs

-The Annual Health Promotion

07 Administration & Managerial

-Program Mutiara Kasih + New staff & Congratulations

MEDIC@UMS BULLETIN

Volume 1 | Issue 1 | November 2019

Chief Editor Dean’s message

Dr Eugene Wong Hung Chih Welcome to Volume 1 Issue 1 of Medic@UMS Bulletin!

ENT Specialist & Lecturer, Over the years, the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences,
UMS has obtained various achievements to be recognised
Faculty of Medicine & Health locally and internationally in teaching, learning, research and
Sciences, UMS innovation. We have also widened our talent pool with
excellent local and international lecturers and staffs in the
[email protected] faculty.

Editorial board We hope this bulletin can serve as a platform for us to
members showcase our achievements as well as to be used as
documented proofs of significant events in the faculty.
AP Dr Fairrul Bin
Masnah@Kadir (Academic) We welcome any suggestions on topics and articles that can
be included in the future issues of Medic@UMS.
Dr Wan Salman Bin Wan Saudi
(Internationalization) Last but not least, I would also like to thank all the Editorial
Board members and other faculty staffs for their time, energy
Prof Dr John Arnold Urban and efforts in making this bulletin a reality.
D’Souza (Research &
Innovation) Prof Dr Mohammad Sa!ree Bin Je!ree,
Dean of Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences,
Dr Constance Liew Sat Lin Universiti Malaysia Sabah
(Clinical Service)

AP Dr Syed Sharizman Bin
Abdul Rahim (Public Health)

Dr Yeap Boon Tat (Student
Affairs)

Mr Hasmi Bin Hashim
(Administration & Managerial)

ACADEMIC November 2019

The Mega Assembly

Annual Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences assembly

AP Dr Fairrul Bin Masnah@Kadir The UMS Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences have
successfully organised our annual Mega Assembly on the 10th
Deputy Dean, Academic & International of September 2019 at the faculty’s Main Auditorium to
welcome all the new students enrolled in various programs for
“I will respect the hard-won the academic year of 2019/2020. The assembly was led by
scientific gains of those Professor Dr Mohammad Saffree Bin Jeffree, dean of the
physicians in whose steps I walk, faculty, and was attended by 60 Diploma of Nursing students,
and gladly share such 90 Doctor of Medicine students and 12 postgraduate students,
knowledge as is mine with those mainly in Master of Public Health, as well as the faculty’s
who are to follow” existing staffs and students.
-Hippocratic Oath, 1964
The dean welcomed all the new students in his opening speech
and wished them great success as they embark their academic
journey in UMS. He also encouraged all the current senior
students to continue pursuing academic excellence and urged
them to develop into holistic individuals. One of the highlights
of the event was when the new students introduced themselves
to the faculty and it was exhilarating to meet students coming
from various parts of Malaysia and from different schools and
institutions.

The event was followed by a reading of the Hippocratic Oath
by the Doctor of Medicine students and the Nightingale
Pledge by the Diploma of Nursing students.

ACADEMIC November 2019

Group photo session after the Finally, a group photo and video session was held at the
assembly faculty’s main roundabout to mark the end of event.

To find out more about our faculty’s programs, please visit us at
http://www.ums.edu.my/fpsk/

INTERNATIONALIZATION November 2019

International Elective Student

Medical student from University of Adelaide, Australia

Dr Wan Salman Bin Wan Saudi The Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences recently
welcomed our 51st international elective posting student, Miss
International Elective Posting Patricia Ting, a year 6 medical student (MBBS) from The
Coordinator University of Adelaide, Australia. Miss Ting completed her 4
weeks elective posting (from 12th August to 6th September
2019) under the supervision of AP Dr Mohd Firdaus Bin Mohd
Hayati at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.

The aim of our elective program is to provide students with
opportunities to observe and learn about the wide range of
clinical diseases commonly affecting our local Sabahan
community. We also hope to cultivate non-clinical skills among
the students such as communication skills and teamwork,
which are essential in order to provide the best healthcare for
our patients. Besides that, we also want our international
students to experience the local culture and food during their
stay in Sabah.

INTERNATIONALIZATION November 2019

Student testimonial:

What is your major degree and at which year you are now?
“My name is Patricia Ting, I am a 6th year medical student (MBBS) #om The
University of Adelaide”.

Why did you choose this international mobility program from
our faculty?

“I chose to do a 4-week International Elective Posting via Universiti Malaysia
Sabah because I wanted to gain some exposure to medical practice outside of
Australia. Having done a% of my medical studies in Adelaide, my university
encouraged students to do up to 8-weeks of electives overseas”.

What did you learn from this program?
“I am extremely grateful for this opportunity to work and learn in a new
environment with multicultural diversity. It was interesting to observe
medical consultations being done in multiple languages as doctors here are a%
multilingual. I have learnt some medical terms in both Malay and Chinese. I
had the chance to see many conditions prevalent to the community but are less
commonly seen in the Australian population. I have been constantly stimulated
by fe%ow co%eagues to broaden and consolidate my medical knowledge. I have
also been given lots of opportunity to learn and practice procedural ski%s. It
wi% benefit to be proactive in seeking these opportunities”.

What did you like the most during your stay here?

“I enjoyed speaking to local doctors about their ways of practice and seeing how
it differs compared to Australia whether it is due to cultural, socioeconomic,
location or administrative factors. It is truly an eye opener for me to see the
bi'er picture of medical practice around the world. Also, the variety of
delicious and cheap food around town is a bonus”.

What would you advise the other elective students joining our
program in the future?

“Be proactive in seeking opportunities to learn. Do not hesitate to ask questions,
there are no stupid questions. Most important of a%, enjoy yourself ”.

To find out more about our faculty’s elective program, please
email us at [email protected]

RESEARCH AND INNOVATION November 2019

First Innovation Talk

From the Lab to the Factory-A testimony can be repeated

Dr Eugene Wong The UMS Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences had the
privilege of having Associate Professor Dr Jidon Adrian Janaun,
Faculty Innovation Coordinator a senior lecturer at the UMS Faculty of Engineering with 5
commercialised intellectual properties (IPs), to give us an
Lecturer and clinical specialist in ENT informative talk on his successful experience in innovation on
23rd of August 2019 at the faculty’s Main Auditorium. This
event was also broadcasted live to those who could not attend
in person via our faculty’s official Facebook page (@Medic Ums)
as we transition into the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

The aim of the talk was to provide an insight into the world of
innovation, so that we can learn how to translate and transform
an innovative idea into a patented and commercialised end
product, and apply those valuable tips to our own innovative
projects in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences in the
future.

RESEARCH AND INNOVATION November 2019

AP Dr Jidon Adrian Janaun explaining “Be ready to learn something
different ways of getting grants to fund an new and move beyond your
specialisation to meet the
innovation public demand”

We learnt that it is crucial to think outside the box when it
comes to innovation, where we should always be willing to
move beyond our specialisation to meet the public demand.

AP Dr Jidon also taught us various ways to secure grants, the
key differences between publication and commercialisation and
the importance of helping investors or companies see the
potential in our projects and work closely with them to
minimise any risks that may arise.

Above all, we learnt that persistence and perseverance is
essential in the field of innovation and we should always involve
the university in every steps in order to go far.

This talk has also further strengthened our work relationship
with the Faculty of Engineering and provide us more
opportunities for future collaborations with them.

To find out more about our upcoming innovation talk or if you
are interested in becoming a speaker, please contact me at
[email protected]

CLINICAL SERVICE November 2019

2nd Borneo Quality of Life
Conference

Quality Rights for Quality of Life: Past, Present and Future

Dr Nicholas Pang Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) hosted the second Borneo
Quality of Life Conference (BQOL) from 28th to 30th August
Deputy Chairperson, BQOL 2019. This event was facilitated by the Faculty of Medicine and
Lecturer and psychiatrist Health Sciences, with the support of other co-organisers,
namely the Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Heritage and the
Sabah State Health Department.

This conference brought every strata of society together:
researchers, practitioners, professionals, students, retirees,
statisticians, faculty, and people of all ages from all parts of the
world, with an interest in exploring quality-of-life, happiness,
and wellbeing. This was in line with the mission of the
International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, which has
been in existence since 1995.

Keynote speakers included Prof Daniel Shek from Hong
Kong, a pioneer in Chinese Quality of Life research and the
chief editor of “Applied Research in Quality of Life”; Dr
Nurhayati Ali, senior psychiatrist and national coordinator of
MENTARI, which aims to improve outreach and re-
integration of people with mental health problems; and our
very own Ms Jannie Lasimbang, the Sabah Assistant

CLINICAL SERVICE November 2019

Board games for brain fitness test at the Minister for Law and Native Affairs, who was a founding
conference member of the PACOS trust, which supports the indigenous
people of Sabah and has been a grassroots activist and
campaigner for over 20 years. She was also the former Human
Rights Commissioner of Malaysia. The event was closed by
Datuk Frankie Poon, our own Sabah Minister of Health and
People’s Wellbeing, who in his speech delivered his vision for
Sabah healthcare, with a dream of quality mental health for all.

During this event, a democratic process of soliciting ideas from
the general public was done in 4 tracks: relationships and
family life, empowerment and human rights, sustainable
development, and QOL research directions. NGO workers,
mental health advocates, academicians, healthcare workers, and
members of the public with special interests, congregated each
afternoon and discussed crowdsourced, viable measures to
improve quality of life. A memorandum to improve QOL in
Sabah was presented by Prof Helen Lasimbang, our
chairperson, both verbally and physically, to the Minister for
his further consideration and action.

There were 5 documentaries interspersed throughout the
programme, with themes ranging from race relations,
monopoly of essential infectious disease medications, to
equality in cleft lip palate repairs. Smile Train, an international
NGO focusing on cleft palate repairs around the world, even
came to host Smile Pinki, an Academy Award winning
documentary about that issue. Also not forgetting every
afternoon – when Preet Kalsi, music therapist at Jesselton
Medical Centre, led a rousing drum circle performance to end
the day.

We look forward to hosting the 3rd BQOL next year, in
preparation for ISQOLS 2022 – next year’s theme is “Quality of
Life Across the Ages”, focusing on QoL in the youth and the
elderly. Stay tuned for more Quality of Life, provisionally in
September 2020!

To find out more about the upcoming 3rd BQOL and ISQOLS
2022, please contact me at [email protected]

PUBLIC HEALTH November 2019

1st International Borneo Healthcare
& Public Health Conference and
4th Borneo Tropical Medicine &
Infectious Disease Congress 2019

New Frontiers in Health: Expecting the Unexpected

AP Dr Syed Sharizman bin The Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, together with
Abdul Rahim the co-organisers, Infectious Disease Society Kota Kinabalu
(IDSKK) and Persatuan Perubatan Desa (PERDESA),
Lecturer and specialist in public health successfully hosted the 1st International Borneo Healthcare and
Public Health Conference and the 4th Borneo Tropical
Medicine and Infectious Disease Congress (IBPHC 2019) from
3rd to 5th September 2019. The event was officiated by the Vice
Chancellor of Universiti Malaysia Sabah, YBhg Prof Datuk Dr
Taufiq Yap Yun Hin.

IBPHC 2019 had put in place an interesting programme with
renowned local and international speakers covering a wide
range of topics including infectious diseases, communicable
and non-communicable diseases, family health, mental health,
occupational and environmental health. There were 2 keynote
speeches, 2 plenaries and 36 symposium lectures during this
event. This was the first time both clinical and public health
professionals as well as members of local communities came

PUBLIC HEALTH November 2019

Sabah’s Minister of Education and together for a combined conference in Borneo. Keynote
Innovation at the Gala Dinner speakers included Dr Jacqueline Lo Ying-Ru, the WHO
Representative for Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam and Singapore
as well as Datuk Dr Christopher K C Lee, the Deputy Director
General of Health (Research & Technical Support) from
Ministry of Health in Malaysia.

The pre-conference workshops offered four hands-on sessions
from the experts including manuscript writing, basic statistical
methods, R-programming, and qualitative approach in
research. These topics were beneficial especially for the new
researchers to improve their knowledge and skills.

This conference also provided a stepping stone for more
research collaborations in the future that will not only benefit
the state of Sabah but the international arena as well. The
abstracts accepted for presentation at the conference would
also be published in the Malaysian Journal of Medicine and
Health Sciences (MJMHS), which is indexed in SCOPUS.

We were also honoured to host YB Datuk Dr Yusof bin Yacob,
the Sabah’s Minister of Education and Innovation at the
conference’s Gala Dinner.

With the success of the 1st IBPHC 2019, the faculty is looking
forward to organising the conference annually. This has been a
great platform for convening experts, leaders, policy makers
and young researchers to share ideas and discuss solutions to
issues in the fields of public health and medicine.

To find out more about the upcoming IBPHC 2020, please
contact me at [email protected]

STUDENT AFFAIRS November 2019

The Annual Health Promotion

Promoting good health in Ranau and Kundasang

Dr Yeap Boon Tat The Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences organized the
annual health promotion activity (EC 1773) from 19th to 29th
Deputy Dean for Student Affairs & August 2019. This event was participated by all the first year
Community Network medical and nursing students with their accompanying
supervisors, as part of their academic programme, to involve
them in health promotion activities in the community. There
were 160 students who were divided into 10 smaller groups
according to different villages in Ranau and Kundasang. The
villages that participated in this activity were Kampung Poring,
Lohan, Mesilou, Sinisian, Bundu Tuhan, Sinisian, Kauluan,
Kibbas, Kilimu, Lembah Permai and Togudon Baru.

During this event, the students organized various health
promotional activities such as health talks, teaching sessions on
Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR), Self Breast
Examination techniques (SBE) , basic health screening, hand
washing and teeth brushing sessions to the school children.
These activities were supported by various companies such as
Dutch Lady Milk Industries that sponsored 60 cartons of fresh
milk, Moma Water, Mart 99 and Pharmaniaga Bhd.

Besides that, the students also conducted several community-
based researches, which were presented at the faculty level and
sent for journal publications.

STUDENT AFFAIRS November 2019

CPR session during the health Overall, the students were very happy that they were able to
promotion event apply their basic medical knowledge to the villagers during this
event. The students have all exhibited good leadership,
cooperation and understanding among themselves, which made
this event successful.

We look forward to organising this annual event again in 2020
to continue playing our part in promoting health among
villagers in rural parts of Sabah.

Student testimonials:

“ We enjoyed our stay in Kg Sinisian, Kundasang and were able to
interact we! among the students and vi!agers. It was truly an eye-
opener for us to be independent and experience the difficult lives of the
rural vi!agers. It was also a good training for me as a group leader, to
plan and lead my group we!. And luckily, a! my group members were
cooperative and understanding,”

-Mohd Nazmirruddin, Ipoh, Perak.

“I love the scenic view of my Kg Kilimu, Ranau. It is so breath taking
and $esh, $ee $om po!ution. In addition, the vi!agers were very
cooperative and welcoming to us. They even sent us local $uits such as
durians and rambutans daily!”

-Ms Tracy, local Sabahan

To find out more about the upcoming health promotion
activities, please contact me at [email protected]

ADMINISTRATION & MANAGERIAL November 2019

UMS Community Engagement
in Mantanani Island

Program Mutiara Kasih

Mr Hasmi Bin Hashim A group of 135 volunteers from UMS comprising of staffs and
students were involved in a community engagement at the
Program Mutiara Kasih coordinator island of Mantanani, Kota Belud, Sabah from 28th February to
3rd March 2019. This event, also known as Program Mutiara
Deputy Registrar, Administration and Kasih, was led by the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences
Finance under the tutelage of the then Deputy Vice Chancellor
(Research & Innovation) and the head of Program Mutiara
Kasih, Prof Dr Shahrif Yusof, with collaboration from other
government agencies such as TLDM, DBP Cawangan Sabah,
APMM, PPD Kota Belud and IPD Kota Belud. Our faculty
had provided 15 medical personnel and medical lecturers to
support this program, which included specialists in various
fields, senior nurses and senior medical and nursing students.

This event was officiated by YB Datuk Dr Yusof bin Yacob, the
Sabah’s Minister of Education & Innovation at the Solar Hall,
SK Pulau Mantanani. The event was also attended by YB Pn
Jennifer Lasimbang, Sabah’s Deputy Minister of Education &
Innovation, Pn Aminah Awang Basar, Director of Dewan
Bahasa & Pustaka Cawangan Sabah and around 300 village
folks and students of SK Pulau Mantanani.

Sabah’s Minister of Education Many interactive activities were held during this event such as
officiating the event education talks on fish bombing by APMM, Basic Hospitality,
Waste Management, health promotion and screening, beach
cleanup program, tree planting session and a puppet workshop.
About half of the participants also had the opportunity of their
lifetime to board a TLDM warship called KD Selangor. The
final activity was the Cultural Night led by Dr Mohd Puad
Bebit, with various cultural dances, singing contests, poem
reading, puppet show as well as a mini demonstration on
“ecobricks”, a plastic bottle eco management education, by YB
Pn Jennifer Lasimbang.

It was pointed out by Prof Dr Shahril Yusof that this was the
first community engagement collaborative project between
UMS and several government agencies, especially the TLDM
Eastern Fleet, on Sabah island.

The Program Mutiara Kasih coordinator, Mr Hasmi Bin
Hashim, expressed utmost gratitude to the TLDM Eastern
Fleet and Marine Borneo Research Institute for making sure
the sea journey of UMS staffs went smoothly as well as
providing all participants with group insurance during this
event. Similarly, Cikgu Yatan Binua, the Headmaster of SK
Pulau Mantanani thanked UMS for organising this educational
program in his school and hope for future collaboration
between UMS and the people at the island again.

To find out more about Program Mutiara Kasih, please contact
me at [email protected]

ADMINISTRATION & MANAGERIAL November 2019

New Staff Welcome

1. Dr Pradip A/L Subramaniam
• (1st July 2019: Internal Medicine)

2. Prof Dr Hamidah Hassan
• (5th August 2019: Nursing)

3. Associate Prof Dr Nabil Ahmed Saleh Eid
• (23rd August 2019: Biomedical Science & Therapeutic)

4. Mdm Jainuh Anda
• (1st July 2019: Assistant Science Officer (C29))

Wedding Congratulations

Dr Meryl Grace Lansing
• (24th August 2019)