Displaying publications 1 - 20 of 173 in total

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  1. Zhou, Wenxin
    MyJurnal
    Chinese medicine is one of the most famous traditional medicines in the world with a glorious and long written history of at least 2000 years. Recently, acupuncture and the use of other herbal medicine are being gradually accepted globally. In 2011,the International Medical University (IMU) started the Chinese Medicine programme which is the first of its kind in a western medicine university in Malaysia.The author introduced the background of Chinese medicine and the curriculum of the Chinese Medicine programme established in IMU, analyzed the situation regarding the quality of lectures given by internal and
    external lecturers in this programme and also discussed on ways to integrate western and traditional medicine in IMU or in Malaysia. The launching of Chinese medicine in IMU is a great step in the development of IMU and also an important step in the development of medical education in Malaysia or even in South-east Asia.
  2. Raja Ariffin RN, Abdul Mutalib M, Mohd Satar N, Hanafi H, Othman A, Tumin M, et al.
    MyJurnal
    Background: There is a lack of information on the practice of family planning among Muslim women in New York City in the United States of America (USA) [hereinafter known as “Muslim women residing in the United States” (MWRIU)], Tehran in the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
    The limited figures on this issue are either outdated or mere estimates. The importance of sexual and reproductive health of Muslim women is expected to have massive effects on the social and economic progress of developing countries like the IRI and Malaysia. It is also expected to have imperative impacts on the attempts to empower the MWRIU community and enhance their health status to meet the national standards.
    Objective: The study objective is to explore and compare the practice of family planning, namely on contraceptive use and abortion among Muslim women in 3 major cities of different countries.
    Methodology: A survey of 379, 377 and 380 respondents from New York City, Tehran and Kuala Lumpur respectively was conducted in 2013 using self-administered questionnaires.
    Results: There were significant differences in contraceptive and abortion practices across these countries (P<0.01). While a significant 86.6% of Iranian and 66.2% of the MWRIU used contraception, only 22.9% of the Malaysian women did so. For abortion, 13.6% of the MWRIU and 6.3% of the Malaysian respondents had abortion at least once; while only 22% of Iranians revealed their abortion history, totaling 32.1% of them who had abortion. Financial problems and having an unsupportive husband were among the major factors hindering their practice of healthy family planning.
    Conclusion: Educational campaigns should be promoted to increase the awareness on the permissibility of family planning in Islam, as well as on sexual and reproductive rights.
  3. Radhakrishnan, Ammu Kutty, Lee, Nagarajah, Young, Mei-Ling
    MyJurnal
    Background: Medical schools have long been concerned with establishing a suitable process of
    admission. The criteria used to select students have traditionally focussed on high academic achievement. Method: The International Medical University (IMU) accepts students from a wide range of pre-university entry qualifications for admission into the medical programme. The criteria for the various pre-university entry qualifications used by the IMU were agreed and accepted by the IMU Academic Council (AC), which consist of deans of the IMU’s partner medical schools (PMS). In this study, the various entry qualifications were first grouped into five categories based on the educational pedagogy. Then, this was aligned with the entry qualification data of all students who had been admitted into the IMU medical programme for the period of December 1993 to March 2000. During this period 1,281 students were enrolled into the IMU medical programme. The relationship between the five groups of pre-university entry qualifications and the students’ academic achievement in three end-ofsemester (EOS) examinations namely EOS 1, EOS 3, and EOS 5 were analysed. Results: Students with better grades in their preuniversity examinations showed better performance in their EOS examinations, regardless of the subjects that they took at the pre-university level. Cluster analysis revealed that students who came in with certain preuniversity qualifications generally performed poorly than the more conventional qualifications. However,
    after their first year in medical school, there were no significant differences in the clustering of the students. Conclusion: Students with better grades in their preuniversity examinations showed better performance in their EOS examinations, regardless of the science subjects that they took at the pre-university level.
  4. Makmor Tumin, Ahmad Farid Osman, Nurhidayah Abdullah, Yong, Sook Lu
    MyJurnal
    Objectives: Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is
    an essential dimension of overall human quality of life,
    in which disparities have been hypothesised between
    women and men, as well as between citizens and
    non-citizens of a country in past literatures. This study
    is to evaluate and compare the HRQoL of citizens and
    non-citizens living in greater Kuala Lumpur and Johor
    Bahru, as well as comparing HRQoL between genders.

    Materials and Methods: The SF-8 questionnaire was
    used to collect information from 1,708 respondents
    (1,032 Malaysian citizens and 676 non-citizens),
    via face-to-face interview between October and
    December 2015.

    Results: Overall, respondents reported moderate
    HRQoL. Non-citizens reported better HRQoL than the
    Malaysian citizens, while men reported better HRQoL
    compared to women (for both citizens and non-citizens).

    Conclusions: The HRQoL of both citizens and noncitizens’
    in Malaysia could be improved. Measures should
    be taken to remove the disparity in HRQoL between
    men and women, aiming to achieve equal health status
    for both genders.
  5. Yeoh, Peng-Nam
    MyJurnal
    IMU is one of 17 institutions of higher learning conducting the Bachelor of Pharmacy course
    in Malaysia. The White paper on pharmacy student professionalism by the Task Force of the American Pharmaceutical Association Academy of Students of Pharmacy together with the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Council of Deans mentioned10 essential traits of a professional, recommending their early development. Since the beginning of theIMU Bachelor of Pharmacy (BPharm) (Hons) course in July 2004 on Registration Day, IMU has adopted the concept of developing professionalism in the pharmacy student from the very first day of university, by having the White Coat Ceremony where the entire class takes the Pledge of Professionalism (adapted from the Task Force) against the “Code of Conduct for Pharmacists and Bodies Corporate” by the Pharmacy Board of Malaysia in the presence of the Senior Director of the Pharmaceutical Services Division of the Ministry of
    Health, Malaysia and the President of the Malaysian Pharmaceutical Society (MPS). Throughout their 4 years in IMU, the pharmacy students are exposed to various aspects of professionalism in different subjects in their curriculum. On 23rd April 2012, when the fifth cohort of BPharm students received their final examination results, “Pharmacy Professional Day” was launched. The graduating students took the Oath of a Pharmacist (adapted from the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy’s Oath with slight amendment). Talks by alumni and speakers from MPS aimed to facilitate the transition of the new graduate to working life as a pharmacist.
  6. Wong TH, Das Gupta E, Radhakrishnan AK, Gun SC, Chembalingam G, Yeap SS
    MyJurnal
    Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory condition that can be associated with abnormal bone turnover and hence osteoporosis. Osteocalcin (OC) levels are increased in conditions with high bone turnover, including high RA disease activity. Thus, OC levels could possibly be used as a marker to assess bone health and disease activity in RA patients. As there have been no previous studies looking at serum OC levels in Malaysian RA patients, this study was performed to examine possible correlations between OC, bone mineral density (BMD) and disease activity in this population. A cross-sectional study of 75 female RA patients and 29 healthy controls was performed. Serum OC was measured using a Quantikine® ELISA kit. Dualenergy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) was used to assess BMD. Serum OC levels were not significantly different between RA patients (median 14.44 ng/mL, interquartile range [IQR 12.99]) compared to healthy controls (median 11.04 ng/mL IQR 12.29) (p=0.198). Serum OC increased with age (Spearman’s rho r=0.230, p=0.047). There was no significant correlation between serum OC and body mass index (BMI), menopause status, BMD, DAS28, swollen or tender joint counts. Overall, there were 11 (14.7%) patients with osteoporosis and 27 (36.0%) with osteopenia. Menopause status was significantly associated with BMD at all sites (lumbar spine p=0.002, femoral neck p=0.004, total hip p=0.002). Serum OC were similar in RA patients compared to healthy controls. In RA patients, serum OC did not correlate with RA disease activity or BMD. Menopause status remains an important influence on BMD. Thus, measuring serum OC levels in Malaysian RA patients was not useful in identifying those at risk of low BMD.
    Study site: Rheumatology clinic, Hospital Tuanku Jaafar, Seremban, Negeri Sembilan, and Klinik Pakar Puchong, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  7. Yap, Ivan K.S.
    MyJurnal
    Metabonomics can be used to quantitatively measure dynamic biochemical responses of living organisms to physiological or pathological stimuli. A range of analytical tools such as high-resolution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and mass spectrometry (MS) combined with multivariate statistical analysis can be employed to create comprehensive metabolic signatures of biological samples including urine, plasma, faecal water and tissue extracts. These metabolic signatures can reflect the physiological or pathological condition of the organism and indicate imbalances in the homeostatic regulation of tissues and extracellular fluids. This technology has been employed in a diverse range of application areas including investigation of disease mechanisms, diagnosis/prognosis of pathologies, nutritional interventions and drug toxicity. Metabolic profiling is becoming increasingly important in identifying biomarkers of disease progression and drug intervention, and can provide additional information to support or aid the interpretation of genomic and proteomic data. With the new generation of postgenomic technologies, the paradigm in many biological fields has shifted to either top down systems biology approaches, aiming to achieve a general understanding of the global and integrated response of an organism or to bottom up modelling of specific pathways and networks using a priori knowledge based on mining large bodies of literature. Whilst metabolic profiling lends itself to either approach, using it in an exploratory and hypothesis generating capacity clearly allows new mechanisms to be uncovered.
  8. Lim, Swee Geok, Yam, Siew Woan
    MyJurnal
    Introduction: Patient falls has been identified as one
    of the major issues in today’s health care despite efforts
    taken in preventing such incidents from happening
    (Cox et al., 2014). Patient falls can be prevented by
    using fall risk assessment tools such as Morse Fall Scale.
    Morse Fall Scale was implemented in the year 2014 in a
    private hospital in Malaysia but the patient fall rate did
    not decrease.

    Objective: The research objective is to determine the
    nurses’ level of knowledge and competency in the use
    of the Morse Fall Scale as an assessment tool in the
    prevention of patient falls.

    Method: A quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional
    research design was conducted with 100 registered nurses
    from a private hospital in Selangor, Malaysia. Universal
    sampling technique was used to recruit the nurses.
    Results: The registered nurses had a moderate level
    of knowledge (M = 7.72; SD = 1.72) and competency
    (scoring Morse Fall Scale, M = 4.75; SD = 1.26;
    planning intervention, M = 13.19; SD = 1.89) in using
    the Morse Fall Scale.

    Conclusion: It is recommended that a review of the
    training programme on the use of the Morse Fall Scale
    be implemented in a more structured manner.
  9. Yadav H
    MyJurnal
    There has been a significant decline in maternal mortality from 540 per 100,000 live births
    in I957 to 28 per 100,000 in 2010. This decline is due to several factors. Firstly the introduction of the rural health infrastructure which is mainly constructing health centres and midwife clinics for the rural population. This provided the accessibility and availability of primary health care and specially, antenatal care for the women. This also helped to increase the antenatal coverage for the women to 98% in 2010 and it increased the average number of antenatal visits per women from6 in 1980 to 12 visits in 2010 for pregnant women. Along with the introduction of health centres, another main feature was the introduction of specific programmes to address the needs of the women and children. In the 1950s the introduction of Maternal and Child Health (MCH) programme was an important
    step. Later in the late 1970s there was the introduction of the High Risk Approach in MCH care and Safe Motherhood in the 1980s. In 1990, an important step was the introduction of the Confidential Enquiry into Maternal Deaths (CEMD). Another significant factor in the reduction is the identification of high risk mothers and this is being done by the introduction of the colour coding system in the health centres. Other factors include the increase in the number of safe deliveries by skilled personnel and the reduction in the number of deliveries by the Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs). The reduction in fertility rate from 6.3 in 1960 to 3.3 in 2010 has been another important factor. To achieve the 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDG) to further reduce maternal deaths by 50%, more needs to be done especially to identify maternal deaths that are missed by omission or misclassification and also to capture the late maternal deaths.
  10. Barling, Peter Micheal, YI, Huan Foong
    MyJurnal
    Keriorrhoea is the involuntarily passing of orange oil per rectum. One of us (PMB) had the misfortune to experience this symptom, together with considerable gastrointestinal disturbances for a prolonged period of time after consumption of a deep sea fish, orange roughy, which is rich in liquid wax esters (LWEs). This paper presents a summary of available evidence concerned with the physiology and pathology of ingestion of LWEs, which can enter the human diet in substantial amounts from consumption of several species of deep-sea fish. LWEs are poorly digested and absorbed by the human body. They generally cause keriorrhoea when ingested deliberately or accidentally. Jojoba oil, which is a plant LWE, together with certain nutritional products (e.g. olestra) and medical (e.g. Orlistat) which are not LWEs may mimic the effects of LWEs, and cause similar gastrointestinal disturbances. This paper discusses the potential effects of LWEs as components of gastrointestinal micelles, and predicts that the orange oil which is leaked from a bout of keriorrhoea may contain considerable volumes of triacylglycerols (TAGs).
  11. Lim, Swee Geok, Lim, Aun Cyi, Wong, Xiao Jing
    MyJurnal
    Introduction: The prevalence of cataract surgeries
    ranges from 7 to 12 million cases in 2000, 20 million
    in 2010 and an estimation of 32 million cataract
    surgeries annually by the year 2020 worldwide (WHO,
    2015). Traditionally, the healthcare providers were
    only able to give health education before the patient
    is discharged from the healthcare setting while followup
    can only be done when the patient comes for their
    follow-up. But most of the patients will remain confused
    or had forgotten about the post-operative care even
    after receiving a comprehensive discharge preparation.
    However, with the advancement of technologies in
    this modern era, nurse-led telephone follow-up can be
    considered as a tool to assist healthcare providers in the
    follow-up care in Malaysia. On the same note, a private
    eye specialist organisation with centres throughout
    Malaysia, had taken the initiative to provide telephone
    follow-up service for their patients with three main
    objectives namely, to provide pre- and post-education
    on cataract surgery, to detect early post cataract surgery
    complications as well as to minimise anxiety among
    their patients. However, till date no patient feedback
    regarding the service was conducted.

    Objective: The research objective for this study was to
    determine patient’s level of satisfaction with the nurseled
    telephone follow-up after cataract surgery at a private
    eye specialist centre in Penang.

    Method: A cross sectional quantitative descriptive study
    design was used to study ninety post cataract patients in
    a private hospital, Penang through universal sampling
    method. A validated self-developed questionnaire based
    on the three main objectives of the telephone follow-up
    service was used for this study.

    Results: Overall, the level of patient’s satisfaction with
    nurse-led telephone follow-up after cataract surgery at
    a private eye specialist centre in Penang was high (49.9
    ±4.85) especially for the health education provided
    (4.18 ±0.21) followed by the effort to detect early
    complications (4.16 ±0.12) and to minimise patients’
    anxiety level (4.16 ±0.12).
  12. Ambu, Stephen, Chu, Wan-Loy, Mak, Joon-Wah, Wong, Shew-Fung, Chan, Li-Li, Wong, Siew-Tung
    MyJurnal
    Malaysia has good environmental laws to protect the outdoor environment and public health. However there are no laws governing indoor air quality (IAQ) and the knowledge among the public about its importance is also lacking. Environmental professionals think it is not a priority and this influences the policy decisions in the country. Therefore there is a need to create awareness by way of research, education and other promotional activities. What is much needed at this time is the establishment of standards for the conduct of risk assessment studies. To establish standards we need reliable data which can be used to develop appropriate guidelines for the purpose of mitigation and adaptation programmes. IAQ can have significant influence on health resulting in drop in productivity and economy of a country. It has been estimated that in the US, building related illnesses (BRI) symptoms have a relationship with decrease (3 to 5%) in work performance in an affected population resulting in an annual loss of US$60 billion in revenue. However, based on efficient management programmes they have also projected that the potential annual savings can be in the region of US$10 to 30 billion. This establishes that fact that good management programmes based on efficient guidelines is of economic value to a country and wellbeing of the population. The IMU has embarked on a research programme to collect the much-needed data for the framing of a good IAQ guideline for Malaysia.
  13. Wong, Rebecca Shin Yee
    MyJurnal
    Bacillus thuringiensis is an anaerobic, spore forming bacterium that produces various toxic proteins both during its vegetative stage and sporulative stage. During its sporulative stage, it produces parasporal proteins that have long been used in the agriculture fields as insecticides. Although anticancer effect of Bacillus thuringiensis parasporal proteins can be dated back to the 1970s, research in this area went through a giant leap in the late 1990s, with much of the work being done in Japan. It has been found that some strains of non-insecticidal Bacillus thuringiensis produce parasporal proteins that exhibit anticancer activity. Due to their selectivity against human cancer cells but not normal cells, some of these proteins have been extensively studied for their anticancer effect and the mechanism of action by which these proteins kill cancer cells have also been widely explored in Japan and Malaysia with sporadic reports from other parts of the world. The abundance of these bacilli in nature and their selectivity have made them potential candidates for cancer treatment. However, literature on the in vivo effect of these proteins is scarce. Since different Bacillus thuringiensis strains produce different cytotoxic proteins with wide variations in their anticancer effect and mechanism of action, further investigations are necessary and their effect in vivo must be well established before they can be used in human subjects.
  14. Teng CL, Tey KK, Lim PH, Cheng SF, Nordin MS, Ng CM, et al.
    MyJurnal
    This is a questionnaire survey of dietary supplement usage among students in the International Medical University. Just over two-fifths of these students reported using dietary supplements daily. This high usage of dietary supplements is in contrast their expressed ambivalence about these products.
  15. Kelly Ee Lu Ting, Maria Sau Sim Ng, Wei Fern Siew
    MyJurnal
    Surgeries are seen as stressors that trigger preoperative anxiety. Preparing the patients for surgery through preoperative teaching becomes crucial to allay anxiety level. In a cross sectional descriptive study conducted on eighty patients (age: 18–65 yr) who had undergone open abdominal surgery, 78.8% (n=63) stated that they experienced anxiety prior to surgery. Among these anxious respondents, 47.5% (n=38) experienced high state anxiety. Three of the top information that patients perceived as important to allay anxiety towards major surgery were: details of surgery, details of nursing care to surgery and information on anaesthesia. Nurses working in the surgical wards need to proactively address patients’ psychological concerns towards surgery and provide preoperative information based on patients’ needs to allay anxiety.
  16. Wan-Loy Chu
    MyJurnal
    There have been significant achievements in research at IMU as indicated by the increasing amount of external funds obtained, and number of publications and postgraduate students produced since it started its research activities in the year 2000. However, it is a great challenge indeed to ensure sustainability of our research, which is currently heavily dependent on internal funding. There is a need to realign our strategies to further enhance our competitiveness in securing external funding for research. In line with this, the Institute for Research, Development and Innovation (IRDI) was officially established on 18 September 2012. The Institute will serve as a platform to support all research activities at IMU. There are four Centres of Excellence based on the identified thrust areas under
    IRDI, namely 1) Centre for Bioactive Molecules and Drug Discovery; 2) Centre for Environmental and
    Population Health; 3) Centre for Cancer and Stem Cell Research, and 4) Centre for Health Professional Education Research. Major findings based on research in these four thrust areas are reviewed in this paper. With the strategic planning and establishment of IRDI, it is our aspiration to bring research at IMU to a higher level.
  17. Victor Lim
    MyJurnal
    Consent is defined as the “voluntary agreement to or acquiescence in what another person proposes or desires”. In the context of medical practice it is now universally accepted that every human being of adult years and of sound mind has the right to determine what shall be done with his or her own body. Informed consent is now a central part of medical ethics and medical law. There has been a change in the public’s expectations of their role in medical decision making. The paternalistic approach by doctors is no longer acceptable. Today the patient has the right to receive and the doctor the obligation to give sufficient and appropriate information so that the patient can make an informed decision to accept or refuse a treatment option. This has led to higher standards of practice in the process of informed consent taking. Consent taking is both a legal and moral requirement. Failure to comply with standards of practice can result in criminal prosecution, civil litigation or disciplinary action by the relevant professional authority. Consent taking is a process and not merely a one-off affixation of the patient’s signature on consent form. It involves a continuous discussion to reflect the evolving nature of treatment from before the treatment is given to the post-operative or discharge period. The regulatory authorities in many countries have established standards for consent taking which would include the capacity of the patient, the person who should seek consent, the information to be provided and the necessary documentation.
  18. Nalliah, Sivalingam, Wijesuriya, Lionel, Venugopal, Subramani
    MyJurnal
    Acute appendicitis is an infrequent yet the commonest surgical emergency in pregnancy occurring in about 1:1500 pregnancies. The classical abdominal pain in the right lower quadrant of the abdomen is the only reliable clinical sign. Delay in diagnosis is attributed to presence of symptoms commonly seen in pregnancy like nausea and vomiting and difficulty in localizing abdominal pain due to displacement of the appendix with advancing gestation. Perforated appendix and generalized peritonitis impacts adversely on pregnancy contributing to increases in miscarriage, pre-term delivery, fetal loss and even maternal mortality. Imaging studies like abdominal ultrasonogram, helical computerized tomography and magnetic imaging have been utilized to complement clinical suspicion and decrease ‘negative appendectomies’ but robust data on their routine use is awaited. Although the laparoscopic approach is a useful diagnostic and therapeutic tool in early pregnancy, its use as the primary approach for appendicectomy in pregnancy requires further evaluation as increases in the incidence of fetal loss of 5.6% has been reported compared to 3.1% in open access surgery
  19. Siew WF, Choo KJY, Lim ZX, Tsia AKV
    MyJurnal
    Background: It is an undeniable fact that exposure to tobacco smoke from the ambiance poses harmful effects to human health. Although many countries including Malaysia have imposed smoking bans and restrictions in indoor and outdoor public places, yet, to achieve a zero exposure to tobacco smoke from one’s surroundings remains a challenge.
    Objective: The objectives of this study were to determine the second-hand smoke (SHS) knowledge and percentage of exposure among adults of rural Pedas, Negeri Sembilan and assess the association between socio-demographics and knowledge of SHS among these adults.
    Methods: A cross sectional study with convenient sampling was carried out on 485 adults in Pedas, Negeri Sembilan. The instrument used was a validated questionnaire which was adapted with permission to suit the sample under study. The data collected were analysed with SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 24.0.
    Results: The percentage of SHS exposure among the non-smoking adults in rural Pedas, Negeri Sembilan was high (95.5%). More than 30% of the non-smoking respondents reported a daily exposure to SHS. The adults from this study however have good knowledge of SHS effects on health. A Mann-Whitney U test result revealed that knowledge on SHS scores was significantly higher for the non-smokers than that of smokers (U=17645, p < .001, r=.18). The top three locations identified as the most common places for SHS exposure were restaurants (38.9%), followed by workplace (26.2%) and home (19.4%).
    Conclusions: The percentage of SHS exposure among the non-smoking adults of rural Pedas, Negeri Sembilan is high. Although the adults in this study have good knowledge of SHS health consequences, yet they are unavoidably exposed to SHS because smoking still occurs within their home, workplaces and public places. Our findings suggest the need for more comprehensive, assertive and strongly enforced policies to ban smoking in public areas, not only in this community but all across Malaysia.
  20. Tai, Yong-Ting, Tong, Chin-Voon
    MyJurnal
    We report a case of occult primary spontaneous
    pneumothorax in a 30 years-old woman. She
    developed symptoms and signs that were suggestive of
    pneumothorax. However, chest radiograph failed to
    reveal pneumothorax. Therefore, we proceeded with
    computed tomography (CT) thorax which revealed
    significantly moderate right pneumothorax. The
    diagnostic approach and the management of this case
    are discussed.
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