WEDNESDAY, 8 MAY - The Department of Biomedical Sciences and Therapeutics (BMST), Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS), Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), had successfully organized a Community Service Responsibility (CSR) program entitled “Jom Sihat Bah! 4.0” at Kg. Pomotodon Inanam, recently with collaboration from Pusat Rawatan Warga (PRW) UMS and Kawasan Rukun Tetangga (KRT) Inanam.

The main objective of this CSR was to deliver health education through talks and poster presentation as well as general health screening to promote healthy lifestyle among the people of Inanam.

Additionally, this program was aimed to foster close relationship between the faculty members, health professionals and the local communities.

The event was officiated by the Dean of FMHS UMS, Professor Dr Mohd Safferee Jeffree. He congratulated the villagers who had made a wonderful effort to attend the event.

“I am pleased to see the crowd today to come forward to get themselves checked for the sake of their health.

“FMHS UMS will always reach out for the community as we are very concerned about the health of the people. We will strive to do more CSR with the local people,” he said.

Among the activities that were held during the one day event includes blood pressure and sugar check up, mental health examination and various informative and interactive health talks.

There is also a blood donation drive which enabled the villagers to donate blood to the needy. There was a special session on breast examination technique for female participants which would allow them to self-identify abnormal lesions in their breasts in order to get timely intervention.

Apart from that, the medical and nursing students of FMHS UMS also displayed human anatomy models to instill interest in medical science among youngsters, and carbon monoxide level detection for cigarette smokers via breath test by using Smokerlyzer^® device.

There was a special home visit for the underprivileged members of the community where donations were handed over to brighten up their day and ease their burden.

According to the Head of Department of BMST FMHS UMS, Dr. Carolline Sunggip, this is the fourth consecutive year that her department is organizing this CSR in Sabah.

“Every year we will hold this Jom Sihat Bah! Campaign at different villages in Sabah. Last year, we held it in Menggatal and next year, we hope to hold it in Keningau.

“We want to show to the people that UMS as a concerned university is capable to bring affordable health care to the villagers. We also would like to promote our Hospital UMS (HUMS) which is scheduled to be officiated in January 2020,” she said.

TUESDAY, 23 APRIL - The first Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangio Pancreatogram (ERCP) workshop was co-organized between Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) and Queen Elizabeth Hospital 1 (QEH) on 21 - 22 April 2019.

The event was first mooted by the Head of Department of Surgical Based Department Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS) UMS, Dr. Nik Amin Nik Lah and received wonderful support from QEH and various endoscopic suppliers such as Olympus, Cook’s Medical,Boston, Medilife & Indizium Sdn Bhd.

In the officiator speech by the FMHS’ Deputy Dean of Students’ Affairs and Alumni Dr Yeap Boon Tat, ERCP is one of the main diagnostic and therapeutic procedures for certain hepatobiliary problems such as obstructive jaundice involving a tumour or stones in the gall bladder.

“The procedure is not easy to be done and involved collaborations from various parties such as radiologists, anaesthetist and various supporting staffs to ensure patient safety and successful of treatment. Thus acquiring, sharing and learning the skills of doing an ERCP should be continuous.

“I applaud the Gatroenterology Unit QEH -led by Datuk Dr Raman Muthukaruppan, Surgical team from FMHS UMS and QEH – led by Datin Dr Rohamini Sibin – for this wonderful effort. I am very sure that this will be an important stepping stone for Hospital UMS (HUMS) to shine as a hub for excellence in hepatobiliary by its establishment by 2021,” he said.

The two-day event saw the participation of renowned Sabah gastroenterologists - Datuk Dr Raman Muthukaruppan and Dr Nagaraj Sriram from QEH, and surgeons Datin Dr Rohamini Sibin, Dr Chuah Jitt Aun (Head of Sabah Surgeons) and Mr Mohd Sharifudin Sharif (Consultant Hepatobiliary Surgeon Gleneagles Hospital, Sabah), three speakers from KSKB Bukit Padang, several general surgeons from Hospital Sandakan and Tawau, trained nurses and 20 medical students.

They shared their experiences and exchanged knowledge on managing ERCP by having the hands on session on a RM 1.5 million state of the art ERCP simulator in FMHS UMS and patients in QEH on the second day of event.

“This event is a success and we are thankful to UMS Vice Chancellor Prof Datuk Dr D. Kamaruddin D. Mudin and FMHS Dean for their wonderful support for my department to co-organise this 1^st UMS-QEH ERCP Workshop. We hope to organize a similar event next year – perhaps to a greater scale to involve Sarawak and Brunei,” Dr Nik Amin said in a statement.

TUESDAY, 23 APRIL - Student Welfare Committee (JAKMAS), Excellent Residential College (KKE), University Malaysia Sabah (UMS) held a clinic for the development of English language for the first time, recently.

The Program Coordinator, Saravanan Sundara Sakaran said that the program was implemented to create awareness among students in effort to increase their interest in English language.

“This is to prepare them for the Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR 4.0) world. In addition, the event could help polish their communication skills and increase their confidence to utilize English in their everyday lives,” he said.

Meanwhile Co-.Coordinator for this program Ahmad Radzi Ab Halim said the importance of English language is very much needed in the world of employment in Malaysia because most employers nowadays hire employees who are fluent in English. 

“Through this kind of events, students are given the opportunity to explore English language profoundly,” he added.  

A total of 60 students from B40 Excellent Residential College and 40 students from SMK Tandek, Kota Marudu participated in the event.

THURSDAY, 18 APRIL - The students and staffs of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Science (FMHS) Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) joined hands to participate in the annual beach cleaning entitled “Jom Ke Pantai Kita Bah” at the Outdoor Development Centre (ODEC) UMS, yesterday.

The event was organized by Eco Campus and FMHS in conjunction with the celebration of 25^th anniversary of UMS establishment.

Despite a brief drizzle during the event, the strong team managed to brave through the rain and ensure the cleanliness of ODEC, which stretched about 1.4km in length.

The programme was officiated by Dr. Yeap Boon Tat, Deputy Dean of Students’ Affairs and Alumni FMHS UMS.

In his officiation speech, Dr Yeap emphasized the importance of global awareness towards environment and the initiatives that each of individual can undertake to limit the usage of plastic in daily living.

“Everyday, we are consuming plastics, indirectly. We eat fishes and seafood that were exposed to plastics and heavy metal wastes – for example mercury.

“We should be tried to reduce the usage of plastics which are difficult to degenerate. That is why; the Eco campus FMHS UMS is now taking the first effort to ban the usage of plastic bags and straws in the faculty effective April 2019.

“This showed how serious FMHS is taking its stand towards environment awareness and safety,” Dr Yeap mentioned.

Associate Professor Dr Piakong Mohd Tuah, a senior lecturer at Faculty of Science and Natural Resources of UMS who also participated in the event, described in detail about the disastrous effects of plastics to the sea creatures and pollution.

“Plastics which were thrown into the sea were thought to be natural foods by the whales and dugongs.

“They consumed it and inadvertently caused death. Marine plastic pollution had impacted at least 270 species worldwide, comprising about 87% of sea turtle species and 44% of sea bird species.

“ This is a very saddening fact and there are some species of turtle that already extinct in the world,” Assoc. Prof Dr Piakong mentioned in his statement.

About 20 medical and nursing students together with lecturers and supporting staffs of FMHS were present in the memorable event.

They cleaned the stretch of beach and collected garbage weighing 90kg in total. They were carefully disposed by the Dewan Bandaraya Kota Kinabalu (DBKK).