Citation: Low WY, Khoo EM, Tan HM. Sexual Health Problems: Attitudes and Practices of Malaysian General Practitioners. Auckland: Adis International Ltd, 2002
Good medicine labelling practice is vital to ensure safe use of medicines. Non-compliance to labelling standards is a potential source of medication errors. This study was intended to evaluate and compare compliance towards labelling standard for dispensed medications between community pharmacists and general practitioners in Penang, Malaysia. A total of 128 community pharmacies and 26 general practitioners' clinics were visited. Using 'Simulated Client Method' (SCM), data were collected on the medications dispensed upon presentation of hypothetical common cold symptoms. The medications dispensed were evaluated for labelling adequacy. Result revealed that majority of the dispensed medications obtained were not labelled according to regulatory requirements. However, general practitioners complied better than community pharmacists in terms of labelling for: name of patient (p<0.001), details of supplier (p<0.001), dosage of medication (p=0.023), frequency to take medication (p=0.023), patient's reference number (p<0.001), date of supply (p<0.001), special instructions for medication (p=0.008), storage requirements (p=0.002), and indication for medication (p<0.001). Conversely, community pharmacists labelled dispensed medications with the words "Controlled Medicine" more often than did general practitioners (p<0.001). Although laws for labelling dispensed medicines are in place, most community pharmacists and general practitioners did not comply accordingly, thereby putting patients' safety at risks of medication errors.
This study was undertaken to compare the entrance surface dose (ESD) and image quality of adult chest and abdominal X-ray examinations conducted at general practitioner (GP) clinics, and public and private hospitals in Malaysia. The surveyed facilities were randomly selected within a given category (28 GP clinics, 20 public hospitals and 15 private hospitals). Only departmental X-ray units were involved in the survey. Chest examinations were done at all facilities, while only hospitals performed abdominal examinations. This study used the x-ray attenuation phantoms and protocols developed for the Nationwide Evaluation of X-ray Trends (NEXT) survey program in the United States. The ESD was calculated from measurements of exposure and clinical geometry. An image quality test tool was used to evaluate the low-contrast detectability and high-contrast detail performance under typical clinical conditions. The median ESD value for the adult chest X-ray examination was the highest (0.25 mGy) at GP clinics, followed by private hospitals (0.22 mGy) and public hospitals (0.17 mGy). The median ESD for the adult abdominal X-ray examination at public hospitals (3.35 mGy) was higher than that for private hospitals (2.81 mGy). Results of image quality assessment for the chest X-ray examination show that all facility types have a similar median spatial resolution and low-contrast detectability. For the abdominal X-ray examination, public hospitals have a similar median spatial resolution but larger low-contrast detectability compared with private hospitals. The results of this survey clearly show that there is room for further improvement in performing chest and abdominal X-ray examinations in Malaysia.
Matched MeSH terms: Family Practice/statistics & numerical data*
Citation: Abu Bakar Suleiman. Seminar on Postgraduate Family Medicine Programme. Pusat Kesihatan Padang Serai, Kulim, Kedah, Malaysia. 28th September 1991.
Citation: Abu Bakar, Suleiman
Keynote Address. Bengkel “Program Perubatan Keluarga: Posting Pusat Kesihatan”. Pusat Kesihatan Padang Serai, Kulim, Kedah, Malaysia, 27 Mac 1995
Strasser R, Rourke J, Anwar I, Naidoo N, Rabinowitz H, McLeod J, et al.
ISBN: 0 7326 0961 5
Citation: Strasser R, Rourke J, Anwar I, Naidoo N, Rabinowitz H, McLeod J, Newbery P, Aziz T, Rosenblatt R, Lee SH, Wynn-Jones J, Rajakumar MK, Yuan G, Chater B, Doolan T, Cowley J, Simpson C. Training for rural general practice. Traralgon , Victoria, Australia: Monash University School of Rural Health; World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA), 1995
A survey of domestic childhood accidental injuries was conducted at a rural general practice in Arau, Perlis. Data was collected from parents or other caregivers of 171 children, aged 12 years and below, using a pretested questionnaire. Male children between the ages of 6 and 12 years were the most common group affected, with a male to female ratio of 1.7:1. The three most common accidents were injuries from falls (28%), cuts, lacerations, bruises and puncture wounds not resulting from falls (26%), and thermal injuries (22%). The most commonly affected parts of the body were the limbs. Most injuries to children between ages 4 to 12 years occurred in the house compounds, while those to children below 4 years occurred in the kitchen and other locations within the house. Major contributing factors to the injuries were the existence of unsafe home environments, the risk taking activities of the children, the presence of hazardous products in the household and unrealistic parental attitudes to injury prevention.
Introduction: University-wide healthcare programme are difficult to implement without complete protocols. This paper describes a collaborative academia-nursing programme to design a quick, user-friendly primary care screen- ing toolkit, to be used at community level at each faculty in UMS. Methods: A Primary Care Condition Assessment Questionnaire was designed by family medicine physicians, mental health doctors, and public health physicians. The questionnaire was pilot tested in 2 different faculties. The Primary Care Condition Assessment Questionnaire was manualized, and a one-day intervention training programme was administered. Subsequently 19 nurses and assistant medical officers were trained in the questionnaire administration and given concurrent communication skills and collaborative practice training to operate the questionnaire. Qualitative assessments of abilities to perform common primary health assessments were performed. Results: Trained nurses qualitatively felt they were more con- fident to perform primary care screening of common healthcare conditions and were able to deliver advice and refer screen-positive individuals to appropriate referral pathways. Conclusion: Public health programmes like HUMS2U put healthcare into the hands of nurses, allowing task-shifting to adequately trained non-specialist professions, and empowers nurses in basic non-communicable disease training and management. Further research will be performed to assess efficacy of the programme at all 23 faculties and departments of the university.
The roles of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) and functionalised multiwalled carbon nanotubes (fMWNTs) in enhancing the efficacy of urea fertilizer (UF) as plant nutrition for local MR219 paddy variety was investigated. The MWNTs and fMWNTs were grafted onto UF to produce UF-MWNTs fertilizer with three different conditions, coded as FMU1 (0.6 wt. % fMWNTs), FMU2 (0.1 wt. % fMWNTs) and MU (0.6 wt. % MWNTs. The batches of MR219 paddy were systematically grown in accordance to the general practice performed by the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI). The procedure was conducted using a pot under exposure to natural light at three different fertilization times; after a certain number of days of sowing (DAS) at 14, 35 and 55 days. Interestingly, it was found that the crop growth of plants treated with FMU1 and FMU2 significantly increased by 22.6% and 38.5% compared to plants with MU addition. Also, paddy treated with FMU1 produced 21.4% higher number of panicles and 35% more grain yield than MU while paddy treated with FMU2 gave 28.6% more number of panicles and 36% higher grain yield than MU, which implies the advantage of fMWNTs over MWNTs to be combined with UF as plant nutrition. The chemical composition and morphology of UF-MWNTs fertilizers which is further characterised by FTiR and FESEM confirmed the successful and homogeneous grafting of UF onto the fMWNTs.
In developing countries, the family persists as a key institution, the centre of the emotional, spiritual and economic life of the individual and the context of the individual's interactions with the community. The majority of the population still live in rural areas where the family-community interaction is close, indeed intense. This remains true too of peasants migrating to urban slums to exist in a new culture of poverty. The family in developing countries represents a more closely shared, psychological, sociological and economic destiny than is perhaps represented by the family in the wealthy nations of the West.
'Health for all by the year 2000' is the promise of the Declaration of Alma-Ata to which all our governments have put their signatures. It is a noble ambition which is impossible to achieve unless the issues of poverty and maldistribution of wealth are seriously addressed. Nevertheless, much progress can be made during a campaign to achieve 'Health 2000' because an opportunity presents to discuss the prerequisites to achieving 'Health for all' and there is pressure to make some progress towards this.
An important opportunity now presents itself to put into effect the new concepts of family practice on a global scale. Hitherto the World Health Organization, (of which WONCA has just become a non-governmental organization affiliate) has not found it necessary to turn to family physicians for advice or expertise whilst organizations of family physicians for their part have shown little interest in the primary health care movement. Family physicians have practised under constraints that have favoured chargeable procedures as against the preventive approach, episodic care as against continuing care, caring for the fee-paying individual as against caring for the family and large panels as against small populations. This practice falls short of our ideals. In developing countries, there is a need for a community-oriented, family-based practice in which the physician and the health care team accept responsibility to work with their community to achieve health for all. We must now give attention to develop this atrophied wing of family practice.
This is truly a historic opportunity that we must seize to make available the concepts and skills of family practice and to universalize the relevance of our way of delivering primary health care. All of us in a great co-operative endeavour can do much for the health of the people of this small globe that we share.
'There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyages of their life
Is found in shallows and miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our venture.'
[Notes added by TCL: Full text of article. The quoted phrase was uttered by Brutus in William Shakespear's Julius Caesar Act 4, scene 3]
Quality programs are difficult to implement where social support for healthcare costs are inadequate and there is no institutional support for quality programs to guide and assist the doctor in pratice. ‘Quality’ is not the good intention to do better, but the process of measurement of behavioral change against set targets. For the majority of the doctors of this region who practice under great constraints, this article outlines some quality activities that are entirely within their personal initiative and responsibility, but should make a real difference to the quality of care provided.nd responsibility, but should make a real difference to the quality of care you provide.
Republished in: Republished in: Teng CL, Khoo EM, Ng CJ (editors). Family Medicine, Healthcare and Society: Essays by Dr M K Rajakumar, Second Edition. Kuala Lumpur: Academy of Family Physicians of Malaysia, 2019: 68-74
Citation: Rajakumar MK. Chapter 13. The Emergence of Family Practice. In: Fry J. Yuen N (ed). Principles and Practice of Primary Care and Family Medicine: Asia-Pacific Perspective. Radcliffe Medical Press. 1994:301-310.
Republished in: Teng CL, Khoo EM, Ng CJ (editors). Family Medicine, Healthcare and Society: Essays by Dr M K Rajakumar. Kuala Lumpur: Academy of Family Physicians of Malaysia, 2008: 61-73
Omitted in Second Edition (2019)
Citation: Rajakumar MK. The family physician in Asia: looking to the 21st century. Family Medicine Education in the Asia-Pacific Region. Core Curriculum for Residency/Vocational Training and Core Content for Specialty Qualifying Examination. The Philippine Academy of Family Medicine, 1993. [Originally published in the Filipino Family Physician in 1993]
Republished in:
1. Republished in: Teng CL, Khoo EM, Ng CJ (editors). Family Medicine, Healthcare and Society: Essays by Dr M K Rajakumar, Second Edition. Kuala Lumpur: Academy of Family Physicians of Malaysia, 2019: 40-45
2. An Uncommon Hero. p354-360