Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Dr Hj Mohd Ismail Merican – Director General of Health, MOH, Malaysia

New academicians waiting to be inducted

Prof Dato’ Dr Khalid Abd Kadir –t he orator for the 10th  Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Lecture

Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Dr Hj Mohd Ismail Merican, the Director General of Health, Malaysia delivered the key note address at the opening ceremony of the 8th Ministry of Health Malaysia –Academy of Medicine of Malaysia Scientific Meeting 2009 incorporating the 12th Scientific Meeting of the National Institutes of Health. His message was safety should be everyone’s business, as patient safety was imperative in the provision of quality care. The title of his keynote address was the theme of the meeting “Building a Safety Culture through Accountability”. This event was held at the Institute for Health Management , Jalan Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur.

At the opening ceremony, new members of the academy and fellows were inducted. The College of Radiology (CoR) congratulates and welcomes the following new members of the CoR:
T. Aloysius Raj, Anita Zarina Bustam, Chong Kwang Jeat, Hasni Hamzah, Ho Gwo Fuang, Lau Fen Nee, Marniza Saad, Moorthy Sinnasamy, Rohaizan Yunus, Daniel Wong Wai Yan and Zabedah Othman.

During the opening ceremony, the Guideline on Medication Error Reporting was launched, and the Memorandum of Agreement on the Advanced Trauma Life Support Course between the MOH and College of Surgeons, AMM was signed.

The highlight was the 10th Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Lecture, delivered by the very eminent Professor Emeritus Dato’ Dr Khalid Abdul Kadir, “Medical Education and Postgraduate Training – Quo Vadis?” Professor Dato’ Dr Khalid was a past Master of the Academy of Medicine. His citation was read by Dr Zainudin Md Zin.

The Co –Chairs of the meeting were Dr Azman Abu Bakar & Prof Dr Rosmawati Mohamed. The scientific committee ensured a very interesting and educational series of lectures, with co-scientific chair Professor Dr Jamiyah Hassan.

Some of the highlights were the plenary sessions: Assoc Prof Benjamin Ong on “To Err Is Human – Myth of Reality?” and Tan Sri Dato’ Dr Abu Bakar Suleiman on “Clinical Governance in Patient Safety” and Prof Ariff Bongsu on “Stem Cell: Medicine’s New Frontier – Ethics and Challenges”. The latter formed the 5th Symposium which was also the National Ethics Seminar 2009. The other lectures were “Public Cord Blood Banking – Ethics and Safeguards”, by Dr Norhanim Asidin and “Guidelines on Stem Cell Research, Therapy and Cloning – Ethics and the Law” by Prof A Rahman A Jamal.

Quite alarming is the statistic that about 1:10 patient encounters are fraught with failure. It is therefore important to perform analysis and clinical audits and encourage a culture of openness and willingness for scrutiny. It was important to reward or acknowledge practices which were sound and good, and not just highlight errors. It is important to know that safety shows itself only by events that do NOT happen. Clinical audits were differentiated from research, because it was sometimes confused for the other. Clinical audits should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and theoretically sound, and should be performed to see if after implementation of changes, the desired effect had been achieved. In the process of achieving a safe and clinically sound environment, clinical governance would best be achieved through an external body accreditation.

Symposia on Medical Errors, Infection Control, Tool Kits for Patient Safety and Patient Safety in the Primary Setting were held. The faculty comprised local and speakers from Singapore.