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).

WEDNESDAY, 17 APRIL - Institute of Tropical Biology and Conservation (IBTP) Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) organised a seminar on Borneo Geographic Expedition 2019 : Kangkawat Research Station, Imbak Canyon Conservation Area (ICCA), yesterday.

The objective of the seminar was to share information and to document the findings obtained during the expedition held on September 28 until October 9^th last year in collaboration with Yayasan Sabah Group.

Among the area studied included flora and fauna diversity, forest ecology, water quality, hydrology, geology and components of social science and eco-tourism.

Kangkawat, which part of the ICCA is a forest dominated by dipterocarp forests and is rich in plant diversity and known as a gene bank.

In his speech, Chairman of UMS Board of Directors, Datuk K.Y Mustafa said UMS and Yayasan Sabah, through its Conservation and Environmental Management Division had carried out many collaborative research and educational activities for the past two decades.

“Thus, it is high time to have a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between these two organisations, just to strengthen the collaborations in research and education and in other areas beneficial to both parties,” he said.

KY Mustafa added UMS will give full support on collaborations with state agencies and our stakeholders.

“UMS has many excellent researchers in various fields, not only in tropical biology but also in social sciences, engineering, medical sciences, arts and heritage and so forth. We are happy to work together with state agencies or any relevant industries to support their goals,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Director of Yayasan Sabah, Datuk Haji Jamalul Kiram Haji Mohd Zakaria said, ICCA is one of the five conservation areas managed by Yayasan Sabah Group, in addition to Danum Valley, Maliau Basin, Silam Coast and Taliwas River. The pharmaceutical and biotechnology potential of ICCA is vast and needed to be explored.  

“ICCA is also an important component of the biodiversity corridor, especially the mammal wildlife, connecting the Maliau Basin to the south of the Danum valley to the east. It serves as a water catchment area for longest river system in Sabah, the Kinabatangan River,” he said.

Jamalul also added Yayasan Sabah Group collaborated with Petronas to develop ICCA as a learning centre for local communities in biodiversity conservation as well as gene bank conservation, and exploration of pharmaceutical and biological potentials.

The Imbak Canyon Studies Centre (ICSC) which was recently officiated by the Chief Minister of Sabah cum Chairman of the Yayasan Sabah Board of Trustees, Datuk Seri Panglima Haji Mohd Shafie Haji Apdal on March 26, will be a centre for tropical rainforest research, education and capacity building.

“I encourage students and researchers from local and international universities to utilise this facility to its fullest and carry out research on biodiversity, ecology, physical sciences, nature tourism and other fields that are needed to manage the conservation area effectively. The vast forest of Imbak Canyon could offer researchers a wide research topic from fundamental to applied researches,” he added.

The Borneo Geographic Expedition 2018 is an example of collaborative activity which could support the management plan of ICCA and the data obtained from the two weeks expedition could provide a scientific basis for conservation and management decision by Yayasan Sabah.

There were 49 presentations in the seminar, where 26 were oral presentations whereas the other 23 were poster presentations.