Clinical Oncologists, Dr Gurcharan Singh Khera, Dr Gerard Lim Chin Chye and Consultant Radiologist Dato’ Dr Sellaiah Sithambaram Pillay were conferred the Fellowship of the Academy of Medicine of Malaysia (AMM) while Dr Kooi Eng San, also a Consultant Radiologist was inducted as ordinary member of the Academy of Medicine during the Opening Ceremony of the 7^th Ministry of Health – Academy of Medicine of Malaysia Scientific Meeting in Bayview Beach Resort, Penang on 6 September 2007. These College of Radiology members were amongst 14 conferred their Fellowship of the AMM and 68 inducted as ordinary members of the AMM.

The meeting also incorporated the 10^th Scientific Meeting of the National Institutes of Health, Ministry of Health, Malaysia (MOH) and was officiated by Yang Berbahagia Tan Sri Datuk Dr Mohd Ismail Merican, the Director General of Health, Malaysia. During the opening ceremony, Dato’ Dr Mahmood Merican received the 3^rd AMM Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad Award for his contributions to the AMM as well field of medicine in Malaysia.

The scientific meeting was varied in the content and the theme was “Medicine and Healthcare in 2020”. The meeting was preceded by pre-congress workshops on Improving Our Post Graduate Surgical Training Programme; Development and Implementation of Evidence Based Clinical Practice Guidelines and Use of Mathematical Modelling in Infectious Diseases. There were more than 300 participants from various fields in medicine as well as paramedical staff and scientists. Topics included Surgical Oncology, Centres of Excellence, Demography & Epidemiology of Disease in 2020, Medical Informatics and ICT, Genomics and Molecular Biology in Medicine, Medico legal/Ethical Issues, Minimal Access Surgery and Robotics, Clinical Post Graduate Training, Clinical Trial Excellence and Web Based Registries.

Invited speakers consisted of local experts and the foreign faculty included Prof Julie A. Freischlag, Prof Pamela A Lipsett and Prof Richard D Schulick from Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in United States of America and also Dr Teoh Ming Keng, the Medico-Legal Adviser, Medical Protection Society, London.

The Guidelines on the Treatment of Anaemia was launched on 6 September 2007 during a Lunch Symposium by the Anaemia Working Group.

Another highlight of the meeting was the Annual Dinner and 9^th Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Lecture on 7 September 2007. Yang Mulia Tunku Abdul Aziz bin Tunku Ibrahim delivered the lecture on “Principled Governance & Nation Building”. Y.M. Tunku Abdul Aziz has held many roles from the corporate sector, World Bank, United Nations to the founding of the Malaysian Society for Transparency & Integrity of which he was the President until December 2004. He is currently a columnist for the New Straits Times.

In both the Annual Dinner and the Opening Ceremony, one of the guests of note was Yang Amat Berbahagia Tun Dato’ Seri Dr Lim Chong Eu, former Chief Minister of Penang and also Honorary A.M. (1990).

A Trade Exhibition was held in conjunction with the meeting. Special thanks to the industry, sponsors, invited speakers and chairpersons for their contributions to the meeting.

Congratulations to the Organising Committee and secretariat led by co-chair, Dr Lum Siew Kheong (AMM) and Dr Nirmal Singh (MOH) for a successful and well run meeting in the Pearl of the Orient!
 

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