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NEWS & VIEWS
14th MALAYSIAN FAMILY MEDICINE SPECIALIST ASSOCIATION SCIENTIFIC MEETING 2010
I Mastura MMed(Fam Med UM) Family Medicine Specialist, Klinik Kesihatan Seremban 2, Negeri Sembilan
Address for correspondence: Dr Mastura Ismail, Family Medicine Specialist, Klinik Kesihatan Seremban 2, Jalan S2 A2, Seremban 2, 70300 Seremban, Negeri Sembilan. Tel: 06-603 3700, Fax: 06-603 3713, Email: drmi68@yahoo.com
Mastura I. 14th Malaysian Family Medicine Specialist Association Scientific Meeting 2010. Malaysian Family Physician. 2010;5(2):10-112
The 14th Malaysian Family Medicine Specialist Conference was held from 29th July till 1st August 2010 at the Renaissance Hotel, Kota Bharu, Kelantan. The conference was officiated by Dato’ Dr Maimunah A Hamid, Deputy Director (Research and Technical Support), Ministry of Health (MOH) Malaysia. The conference was well attended by over 350 participants from all over the country. The theme for this year conference was ‘Prevention in Primary Care: Future Challenges’. The conference was co-organized by the Family Medicine Specialist Association Malaysia (FMSA), Kelantan State Health Department and Family Medicine Association University Science Malaysia (FAMOUS).
The theme for this year’s conference “Prevention in Primary Care - Future Challenges’, is very timely as prevention is an important component in primary care. Preventing chronic diseases are much more cost effective than treating established diseases. The objectives of the conference:
- to encourage preventative-orientated and proactive mode of care in order to reduce disease related morbidity and mortality
- to strengthen and update the knowledge in preventive care for all ages in family unit
- to practice an effective screening for a broad range of risk factors associated with preventable disease and encourage appropriate preventive measure
There were three concurrent pre-conference workshops conducted one day earlier:
i) Ultrasound: Hands-On Course for Primary Care Physicians
ii) Evidence-Based Medicine
iii) Sex Coaching for Primary Care Physician
The first plenary was delivered by Dr Safurah Jaafar, Director of the Family Health Development, MOH, on Achieving Millennium Development Goal: Analyzing the Malaysian Progress for MDGs 4, 5 and 6. The deadline to achieve MDG (Millennium Development Goal) is at 2015. The MDGs prescribe a framework for measuring progress in development and focuses on improvement of people’s lives. Malaysia’s pledge aiming to achieve the MDGs has seen significant progress in all targets set for each of the MDGs. MDG 4 is looking at reduction of child mortality, MDG 5 improvement in maternal health and MDG 6 for HIV, malaria and tuberculosis.
Reduction in child mortality and improvement in maternal health are closely link. The recorded reductions in child and maternal mortality last few decades have been lauded by many observers. However, the stagnating rates last ten years have been under scrutiny. The concern if no appropriate and adequate interventions are taken, Malaysia may not be able to achieve the set target for MDG 4 and MDG 5 by 2015. She elaborated further on some of the interventions that need to be taken to accelerate the reduction.
The Keynote Address was given by Dato’ Dr Maimunah A Hamid, Deputy Director (Research and Techinical Support), MOH, Malaysia, entitled Preventive Care in Malaysia as A Sustainable Health Care Model. She emphasized on the importance of preventative and promotive care activities in primary care. She also touched on the planning for 1 Care for Malaysia.
Later, there were concurrent symposiums. In Symposium 1, Dr Maimunah Mahmaud from Klinik Kesihatan (KK) Jinjang, spoke on Pre-conception Screening: The Way Forward. She highlighted that quality pre-conceptual and pre-natal services should be integrated in the existing primary care services. This will provides an opportunity to identify and manage chronic and acute medical conditions could improve birth outcome. Then, Dr Hj Mohd Hanafiah Mohd Jamil, Consultant Paediatrician from Department of Paediatric, Hospital Raja Perempuan Zainab II, spoke on Screening in Neonate: What Primary Care Doctors Should Know? He described that newborn screening is the process of testing newborn infants for treatable diseases. However, in Malaysia only two diseases are being screened currently. He has discussed on current practice, its principle and whether it is possible to do other methods for screening. For Symposium 2, the speaker was Dr Nazrila Hairizan Nasir, Family Medicine Consultant from KK Pandamaran, who discussed in detail about Early Detection of Behavioural Problem in Children. This was followed by Dr Rozita Zakaria from KK Pasir Gudang, who spoke on Prevention of Childhood Obesity.
Lunch symposium topic was Smoking Cessation in Primary Care delivered by Dr Sallehuddin Abu Bakar, Deputy Director, Wilayah Persekutuan State Health Department. Various techniques and treatment for smoking cessation were discussed.
The next speaker for Symposium 3 (Infectious Disease) was Dato’ Dr Ghazali Ismail, Consultant Obstetrics & Gynaecology from Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM), who spoke on Prevention of Maternal to Child HIV Transmission. Followed by Dato’ Dr Hj Abdul Razak Muttalif , Consultant Chest Physician from Department of Respiratory Medicine, Hospital Pulau Pinang who spoke on Latent TB: To Treat or Not To Treat. Latent TB (LTBI) should be treated as a condition in itself, because it is a pre-cursor to a serious and potentially fatal disease. However, before treating in the high risk groups, diagnosis is vital. Careful selection of patients with close monitoring is vital. Later, Dr Wan Mansur Hamzah who is the Deputy State Director, Kelantan State Department, spoke on Outbreak Preparedness Plan: Role of Primary Health Care. There must be an alert system in primary care in order to detect possibility of an outbreak (good surveillance system). A good triaging system, isolation of cases and early appropriate management are important in primary care.
During Symposium 4 (Geriatric Health), Dr Ruziaton Hashim, Consultant Family Medicine from KK Shah Alam, spoke on Dementia: Can We Predict? She emphasized that early detection and managing modifiable risk factors of dementia not only prevent the disease. Followed by Dr Ho Bee Kiau, Family Medicine Consultant from KK Kapar, who spoke on Osteoporosis: Risk Reduction Strategies. She elaborated on pathophysiology of osteoporosis and stressed that risk reduction strategies should begin at early age which includes promoting healthy body weight, regular physical activities, smoking cessation, avoiding excessive alcohol and caffeine ingestion and adequate calcium intake. Lastly, Assoc Prof Dr Shaiful Bahari Ismail from Department of Family Medicine, HUSM, spoke on Erectile Dysfunction (ED) as A Clinical Cardiovascular Marker. He presented that there is evidence that mild ED is a strong predictor of future cardiac events and both have common vascular risk factors.
Day 1 conference ended with a dinner symposium on Quality Use of Generic Medicines: The Myth and Facts, delivered by Dr Asrul Akmal Shafie from CCM Pharmaceuticals Division.
Day 2 conference started with Plenary 2 on Mental Disorder in Primary Care: Looking for Reliable Screening Tools by Dr Baizury Bashah, Family Medicine Consultant, KK Bandar, Alor Star. Primary care providers can play important role in mental health promotion, early detection and treatment, relapse prevention, managing stable patients and psychosocial rehabilitation. Later, followed by Symposium 5 (Mental Health), Dato’ Suarn Singh, Consultant Psychiatrist from Hospital Bahagia, Ulu Kinta, sensitized participants to Schizophrenia: Prevention of Relapse. He described the common symptoms, treatment and prevention of this disorder. Followed by Assoc Prof Dr Hasanah Che Ismail from the Department of Psychiatry, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), who spoke on Strengthening the Detection of Depression in Primary Care.
During Symposium 6 (Adolescent Health), Dr Thiayagar Nadarajaw spoke on Identification and Management of Psychosocial Problems Among Adolescents. He enlightened the audience on what is helpful (and unhelpful) in dealing with this group of patients. This was followed by a symposium on Child Protection Act: Application in Clinical Practice given by Assoc Prof Siti Hawa from Women’s Health Development Unit, USM. She stressed that applying the Malaysian Child Act 2001 in medical setting requires meticulous and thorough medical examination so that fair and effective decision can be achieved.
Lunch symposium topic for Day 2 was on A New Paradigm Shift in Cardio & Vascular Medicine by Dato’ Dr Azhari Rosman, Cardiologist from Institut Jantung Negara (IJN).
Plenary 3 was delivered by Prof Abdul Aziz Baba who spoke on Prevention of Cancer in Primary Care. Later, followed by Symposium 7 (Cancer), Assoc Prof Noreen Norfaraheen Abdullah spoke on Imaging Modalities in Early Detection of Cancer. She has introduced several imaging modalities that can be used for early detection and prevention of cancer. Among others are Positron Emission Tomography (Pet-Scan), Thermography, Mammography, Scintigraphy and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Later, followed by Dato’ Dr Muhammad Radzi who spoke on Recent Development of Colorectal Cancer Screening. Colorectal is the commonest cancer among males and third among females. In general, there are two ways for screening:
i) stool occult blood test and followed by colonoscopy if former turn out positive
ii) straight away doing colonoscopy
Other methods in pipeline are fecal DNA testing, CT colonography and few other biomarkers. In Symposium 8 (Respiratory), two symposiums presentation was done by Dr Tengku Saifudin Tengku Ismail on COPD: Role of Early Screening, followed by Interpretation of Lung Function Test.
Dinner Symposium during Day two conference was on Practical Approach to Asthma Management given by Dr Shaharudin Abdullah, Senior Lecturer, HUSM. Following the dinner symposium was the Gala Dinner with the theme ‘The Red Carpet Night’. Participants were presented with lively traditional dances and music.
The programme remained lively on the final day. From as early Sunday morning until mid-day, the participants were fully occupied. During Plenary 4, the audience listened to Prof Datin Dr Chia Yook Chin, from University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) who spoke on Cardiovascular Risk Assessment: Which Tool to Choose for Malaysians? In Symposium 9, Prof Dato’ Dr Mafauzy Mohamed spoke on Targetting HbA1c of 6.5%, Are We Fighting a Losing Battle? Assoc Prof Zurkurnai Yusof, a Consultant Cardiologist from HUSM spoke on Primary Prevention of CVD: The Latest Evidence. This was followed by Prof Dr Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman who spoke on Should We Treat Pre-hypertension?
During the three days conference, there were all together 12 interesting free paper and 24 poster presentations. Best oral presentation won by Dr Rosediani, Department of Family Medicine, USM with title Knowledge, Attitude and Practice Towards Pelvic Floor Muscle Exercise Among Antenatal Women. The first prize for poster presentation was awarded to Dr Norsiah Ali, KK Tampin. Her poster was on Quality of Life in Methadone Therapy in the District of Tampin, Negeri Sembilan. It was felt that the objectives of the conference were achieved. The participants were definitely sensitized to the issues as subsequent question and answer sessions were lively. It must be recorded that overall the conference was a success due to the hard work put in by the committee’s secretariat led by Dr Nik Azhan Nik Mohamed, Family Medicine Consultant, KK Kota Bharu. The 15th Malaysian Family Medicine Specialist Conference will be held in Negeri Sembilan next year.