MyMedR

Piloting a psycho-education program for parents of pediatric cancer patients in Malaysia

Othman A, Blunden S, Mohamad N, Mohd Hussin ZA, Jamil Osman Z

Psychooncology, 2010 Mar;19(3):326-31.

PMID: 19462470 DOI: 10.1002/pon.1584

To evaluate a psycho-educational program (PeP) for parents of children with cancer (PoCwC) in Malaysia.

Matched MeSH terms: Pilot Projects

Community pharmacists' views on adverse drug reactions reporting in Malaysia: a pilot study

Ting KN, Stratton-Powell DM, Anderson C

Pharm World Sci, 2010 Jun;32(3):339-42.

PMID: 20336371 DOI: 10.1007/s11096-010-9382-0

OBJECTIVES: To investigate community pharmacists' knowledge, attitudes and views on adverse drug reaction (ADR) reporting. Setting Seven community pharmacies in Malaysia.

METHOD: Structured interviews with community pharmacists. Informed consent was obtained and interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Content analysis of themes on awareness of ADR reporting, reporting activities, attitudes and views on patient reporting.

RESULTS: All pharmacists claimed to have some knowledge of a reporting system but only one had submitted a report directly to the regulatory authority. Despite the low level of reporting activities, all participants agreed that it was part of their professional obligation to report an ADR. Most participants were not aware of the direct patient reporting scheme and were skeptical about its success. Lack of awareness and patients' limited knowledge about their medications were viewed as barriers to patient reporting. Local attitudinal issues including pharmacists' attitude towards ADR reporting were described as possible contributing factors.

CONCLUSION: Community pharmacists have an important role in reporting ADRs. Many Malaysian patients are still perceived to be ill-informed of their medications, an important determinant to the success of patient reporting. There is a need for further training about ADRs and ADR reporting for health professionals and further education for patients.

Matched MeSH terms: Pilot Projects

Pilot-scale removal of chromium from industrial wastewater using the ChromeBac system

Ahmad WA, Zakaria ZA, Khasim AR, Alias MA, Ismail SM

Bioresour Technol, 2010 Jun;101(12):4371-8.

PMID: 20185301 DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2010.01.106

The enzymatic reduction of Cr(VI) to Cr(III) by Cr(VI) resistant bacteria followed by chemical precipitation constitutes the ChromeBac system. Acinetobacter haemolyticus was immobilized onto carrier material inside a 0.2m(3) bioreactor. Neutralized electroplating wastewater with Cr(VI) concentration of 17-81 mg L(-1) was fed into the bioreactor (0.11-0.33 m(3)h(-1)). Complete Cr(VI) reduction to Cr(III) was obtained immediately after the start of bioreactor operation. Together with the flocculation, coagulation and filtration, outflow concentration of less than 0.02 mg Cr(VI)L(-1) and 1mg total CrL(-1) were always obtained. Performance of the bioreactor was not affected by fluctuations in pH (6.2-8.4), Cr(VI) (17-81 mg L(-1)), nutrient (liquid pineapple waste, 1-20%v/v) and temperature (30-38 degrees C). Standby periods of up to 10 days can be tolerated without loss in activity. A robust yet effective biotechnology to remove chromium from wastewater is thus demonstrated.

Matched MeSH terms: Pilot Projects

Fulltext Training simulated patients: evaluation of a training approach using self-assessment and peer/tutor feedback to improve performance

Perera J, Perera J, Abdullah J, Lee N

BMC Med Educ, 2009;9:37.

PMID: 19563621 DOI: 10.1186/1472-6920-9-37

BACKGROUND: Most medical schools use simulated patients (SPs) for teaching. In this context the authenticity of role play and quality of feedback provided by SPs is of paramount importance. The available literature on SP training mostly addresses instructor led training where the SPs are given direction on their roles. This study focuses on the use of peer and self evaluation as a tool to train SPs.
METHODS: SPs at the medical school participated in a staff development and training programme which included a) self-assessment of their performance while observing video-tapes of their role play using a structured guide and b) peer group assessment of their performance under tutor guidance. The pre and post training performance in relation to authenticity of role play and quality of feedback was blindly assessed by students and tutors using a validated instrument and the scores were compared. A focus group discussion and a questionnaire assessed acceptability of the training programme by the SPs.
RESULTS: The post-training performance assessment scores were significantly higher (p < 0.05) than the pre-training scores. The degree of improvement in the quality of feedback provided to students was more when compared to the improvement of role play. The acceptability of the training by the SPs was very satisfactory scoring an average of 7.6 out of 10. The majority of the SPs requested the new method of training to be included in their current training programme as a regular feature.
CONCLUSION: Use of structured self-reflective and peer-interactive, practice based methods of SP training is recommended to improve SP performance. More studies on these methods of training may further refine SP training and lead to improvement of SP performance which in turn may positively impact medical education.

Matched MeSH terms: Pilot Projects

Developing a consumer reporting program in Malaysia: a novel initiative to improve pharmacovigilance

Palaian S, Alshakka M, Mohamed Izham

Pharm World Sci, 2010 Feb;32(1):2-6.

PMID: 19894139 DOI: 10.1007/s11096-009-9342-8

The national pharmacovigilance program in Malaysia is limited to very few centers and under-reporting of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) is a major limitation. Studies from developed countries have documented the importance and usefulness of consumer reporting of ADRs. Involving consumers in ADR reporting can be very useful in improving the reporting rates in Malaysia. The present article highlights the proposed plan of initiating a consumer based pharmacovigilance program in University Wellness Center located inside the campus of the Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia.

Matched MeSH terms: Pilot Projects

A radiographic study on the visualization of the anterior loop in dentate subjects of different age groups

Ngeow WC, Dionysius DD, Ishak H, Nambiar P

J Oral Sci, 2009 Jun;51(2):231-7.

PMID: 19550091

The anterior loop is defined as where the mental neurovascular bundle crosses anterior to the mental foramen then doubles back to exit the mental foramen. It cannot be seen clinically but can be detected in 11-60% of panoramic radiographs. As this anatomical structure is important in determining the placement position of endosseous implants in the mandibular premolar region, a pilot study was undertaken to determine its visibility on dental panoramic radiographs in dentate subjects of various age groups. One or more anterior loops were visible in 39 (40.2%) radiographs encompassing 66 sites (34.4%). Interestingly, anterior loops were most commonly observed bilaterally, followed by on the right side of the mandible only. An anterior loop on the left side only was observed in just 1 radiograph. Visibility of anterior loops reduced as the age of subjects increased. More than half (58.1%) of subjects aged 20-29 years exhibited at least one anterior loop; this gradually reduced to only 15 percent of subjects aged 50 and older. There was no association between visualization of the anterior loop and subject gender.

Matched MeSH terms: Pilot Projects

Fulltext Malaysian Psoriasis Registry--preliminary report of a pilot study using a newly revised registry form

Chang CC, Gangaram HB, Hussein SH

Med J Malaysia, 2008 Sep;63 Suppl C:68-71.

PMID: 19227676

The Malaysian Psoriasis Registry, established in 1998, is the first skin disease clinical registry in Malaysia. It aims to provide useful data on various aspects of psoriasis. Following an extensive revision of the registry form in 2007, a total of 509 psoriasis patients from 10 government dermatologic centres were reviewed in a three month pilot study. The onset of psoriasis was during the second to fourth decade of life in the majority of patients. There was no sexual and ethnic predilection. A positive family history was present in 21.2%, and more common in patients with younger disease onset. The main aggravating factors of psoriasis were stress, sunlight and infection. Plaque psoriasis was the commonest clinical type (80.9%). Joint disease was present in 17.3% of patients, among which mono-/oligoarticular type being the commonest. Nail changes occurred in 68%. More psoriasis patients were overweight and obese compared to the normal population. The mean Dermatologic Life Quality Index (DLQI) score was 8.08 +/- 6.29, and changes during subsequent follow-up may reflect therapeutic effectiveness. This study enabled evaluation of the revised registry form and helped in identifying shortcomings in the implementation of the registry.

Matched MeSH terms: Pilot Projects

Sintering behaviour of hydroxyapatite bioceramics

Ramesh S, Tan CY, Aw KL, Yeo WH, Hamdi M, Sopyan I, et al.

Med J Malaysia, 2008 Jul;63 Suppl A:89-90.

PMID: 19024998

The sintering behaviour of a commercial HA and synthesized HA was investigated over the temperature range of 700 degrees C to 1400 degrees C in terms of phase stability, bulk density, Young's modulus and Vickers hardness. In the present research, a wet chemical precipitation reaction was successfully employed to synthesize a submicron, highly crystalline, high purity and single phase stoichiometric HA powder that is highly sinteractive particularly at low temperature regimes below 1100 degrees C. It has been revealed that the sinterability of the synthesized HA was significantly greater than that of the commercial HA. The temperature for the onset of sintering and the temperature required to achieve densities above 98% of theoretical value were approximately 150 degrees C lower for the synthesized HA than the equivalent commercial HA. Nevertheless, decomposition of HA phase upon sintering was not observed in the present work for both powders.

Matched MeSH terms: Pilot Projects

Effect of powder calcination on the sintering of hydroxyapatite

Tan CY, Ramesh S, Aw KL, Yeo WH, Hamdi M, Sopyan I

Med J Malaysia, 2008 Jul;63 Suppl A:87-8.

PMID: 19024997

The sintering behaviour of synthesized HA powder that was calcined at various temperatures ranging from 700 degrees C to 1000 degrees C was investigated in terms of phase stability, bulk density, Young's modulus and Vickers hardness. The calcination treatment resulted in higher crystallinity of the starting HA powder. Decomposition of HA phase to form secondary phases was not observed in all the calcined powders. The results also indicated that powder calcination (up to 900 degrees C) prior to sintering has negligible effect on the sinterability of the HA compacts. However, powder calcined at 1000 degrees C was found to be detrimental to the properties of sintered hydroxyapatite bioceramics.

Matched MeSH terms: Pilot Projects

Fulltext Pilot study on depression among secondary school students in Selangor

Adlina S, Suthahar A, Ramli M, Edariah AB, Soe SA, Mohd Ariff F, et al.

Med J Malaysia, 2007 Aug;62(3):218-22.

PMID: 18246911 MyJurnal

A cross sectional descriptive study of 2048 subjects was conducted to determine the prevalence of depression and factors influencing depression among students in secondary school from urban and rural areas in the state of Selangor, Malaysia. The children's depression inventory (CDI) developed by Maria Kovacs was used in this study. Students who participated in this study come from two urban schools and three rural schools. It was found that in the yield for scores for five factors were 9.2% have negative mood, 5% have interpersonal problems, 8.3% have ineffectiveness, 9.8% have anhedonia and 10.6% have negative self esteem. Following the interpretive guidelines for the T-scores, it was found that 10.3% of the students were much above average in the depression scale. This study also found that: 1% of students were smoking, 1.6% of students were gum sniffling, 0.9% took drugs, 4.1% took alcohol and 9.9% took things from other people. Females were more depressed than males. The Chinese students were more depressed compared to Indian students. Students whose parents had no formal education or had only primary education were more depressed than students whose parents had secondary, college or university education. Depression increased with increasing number of siblings. Depression contributed to the habit of drug abuse, gum sniffing and stealing but not to smoking and alcohol abuse. Suicidal tendencies were more likely among the depressed students. It is imperative that not only caregivers but also teachers have to be equipped with the knowledge, attitude and skills to assist secondary school children cope with their emotions, handle conflicts and manage stress early so that a more productive society will develop in the future.

Matched MeSH terms: Pilot Projects

Fast prototype of a wireless cardiac rhythm interpretive instrument

Wong KI, Ho MM

Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc, 2008;2008:502-5.

PMID: 19162703 DOI: 10.1109/IEMBS.2008.4649200

Extended patient monitoring has become increasingly important for detection of cardiac conditions, such as irregularities in the rhythms of the heart, while patient is practicing normal daily activity. This paper presents a design of a single lead wireless cardiac rhythm interpretive instrument that capable of capture the electrocardiogram (ECG) in digital format and transmitted to a remote base-station (i.e. PC) for storage and further interpretation. The design has achieved high quality of ECG and free of interference in the presence of motion.

Matched MeSH terms: Pilot Projects

Substitution treatment in Malaysia

Noordin NM, Merican MI, Rahman HA, Lee SS, Ramly R

Lancet, 2008 Sep 27;372(9644):1149-50.

PMID: 18926274 DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(08)61479-8

Matched MeSH terms: Pilot Projects

Biophenols from agro-industrial wastes

Jamal P, Alam MZ, Suhani F

Med J Malaysia, 2008 Jul;63 Suppl A:107-8.

PMID: 19025008

Large quantities of agro-based liquid wastes are produced every year and their disposal is often a problem for industries. In light of that, in this study prudent effort was done to screen the agro-industrial wastes - pineapple waste (PAW) and palm oil mill effluent (POME) for valuable biophenols product. Three different solvents; ethanol, acetone and distilled water were screened in order to enhance the process. All experiments were performed using fixed process conditions of solid to solvent ratio, temperatures, time and agitation speed. Effectiveness of extraction process to produce biophenol was based on high amount with more activity. POME was selected as potential source with biophenol content of 125.42 mg/L GAE.

Matched MeSH terms: Pilot Projects

Optimization of process conditions for removal of cadmium using bioactive constituents of Moringa oleifera seeds

Jamal P, Muyibi SA, Syarif WM

Med J Malaysia, 2008 Jul;63 Suppl A:105-6.

PMID: 19025007

Pollutants, especially heavy metals like cadmium, Chromium, lead and mercury, play a significant role in causing various water-borne diseases to humans. This study evaluates the sorption properties of bioactive constituents of Moringa oleifera seeds for decontamination of cadmium at laboratory scale. The performance of the bioactive constituent extracted by salt extraction method was enhanced by process optimization with various concentration of bioactive dosages, agitation speed, contact time, pH and heavy metal concentrations. Statistical optimization was carried out for evaluating the polynomial regression model through effect of linear, quadratic and interaction of the factors. The maximum removal of cadmium was 72% by using 0.2 g/l of bioactive dosage.

Matched MeSH terms: Pilot Projects

Growth kinetic study on normal and microtic chondrocytes of human auricular cartilage

Ishak MF, Aminuddin BS, Asma A, Lokman BS, Ruszymah BH, Goh BS

Med J Malaysia, 2008 Jul;63 Suppl A:117-8.

PMID: 19025013

Chondrocytes were isolated from normal and microtic human auricular cartilage after ear surgery carried out at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre. Chondrocytes were cultured and expanded until passage 4. After reached confluence, cultured chondrocytes at each passage (P1, P2, P3 and P4) were harvested and assigned for growth profile analysis. There was no significant difference in cell viability between both normal and microtic samples (p = 0.84). Both samples showed no significant differences for growth profile parameters in terms of growth rate, population doubling time and total number of cell doubling, except in passage 1, where there is significant difference in cell growth rate (p = 0.004). This preliminary data has indicated that chondrocytes from microtic cartilage has the potential to be used in the reconstruction of human pinna in the future.

Matched MeSH terms: Pilot Projects

Selectivity of compounds isolated from the leaves of Nerium indicum Mill. on various human cancer cell lines

Mae SH, Sofia M, Bolhuis RL, Nooter K, Oostrum RG, Subagus W, et al.

Med J Malaysia, 2008 Jul;63 Suppl A:24-5.

PMID: 19024965

The leaves of Nerium indicum Mill. have been utilized traditionally to cure cancer. By Bioassay (BST) guided isolation method, six compounds were isolated from the CHCl3 extract of the leaves. Selectivity of these compounds (in 0.6-12,500 ng/ml) was tested on various human cancer (MCF7, EVSA-T, T47D, H226, IGROV, A498, WIDR, M19, HeLa) and normal (Vero) cells in vitro. Doxorubicin and cysplatin were used as positive controls. The result indicated that NiO2D (5alpha-oleandrin) possessed the best cytotoxic effect on HeLa cells (IC50, 8.38 x10(-6) mM) and NiO2C (16, 17-dehidrodeasetil-5alpha-oleandrin) on A498 cells (IC50, 1.43 x 10(-6) mM). Those two compounds were not cytotoxic to normal cell.

Matched MeSH terms: Pilot Projects

Differential gene expression of human adipose-derived stem cells in osteogenic induction

Hamid AA, Ruszymah BH, Aminuddin BS, Sathappan S, Chua KH

Med J Malaysia, 2008 Jul;63 Suppl A:9-10.

PMID: 19024959

Human adipose-derived stem cells (HADSC) have demonstrated the capacity of differentiating into bone depending on the specific induction stimuli and growth factors. However, investigation on stem cell characteristic after osteogenic differentiation is still lacking. The goal of this study was to investigate the differential expression of sternness and osteogenic genes in non-induced HADSC compared with HADSC after osteogenic induction using quantitative Real Time RT-PCR. Our results showed that OCT-4, REX-1, FZD9, OSC, RUNX, and ALP were up regulated after osteogenic induction. This may indicated that HADSCs after osteogenic induction still possessed some stemness properties.

Matched MeSH terms: Pilot Projects

Combined large radial retinotomy and circumferential retinectomy in the management of advanced proliferative vitreoretinopathy

Lim AK, Alexander SM, Lim KS

Retina, 2009 Jan;29(1):112-6.

PMID: 18784619 DOI: 10.1097/IAE.0b013e318187f14a

Matched MeSH terms: Pilot Projects

Successful commercialisation of locally fabricated bioceramics for clinical applications

Fazan F, Besar I, Osman A, Samsudin AR, Khalid KA

Med J Malaysia, 2008 Jul;63 Suppl A:49-50.

PMID: 19024978

This paper chronicled the development of a locally produced bone graft substitute based on calcium phosphate bioceramics called "GranuMaS--from concepts to clinics, and finally to its successful commercialization all within 5-year duration. It was a Prioritized Research (PR) collaborative project of 5 institutions namely SIRIM, ANM, USM, UKM and IIUM, funded by MOSTI to the amount of approximately RM2.5 millions under RM8. This paper also highlighted the requirements needed in terms of technical expertise/manpower, facilities and infrastructure, and government/institutional supports, as well as the challenge faced in developing and commercializing such product.

Matched MeSH terms: Pilot Projects

Effect of maternal age, birth weight and infant sex on total nucleated cell (TNC) count and volume of umbilical cord blood (UCB) collected

Choong SN, Ng YK, Kamalan A, Saraswathy S, Goh EH, Lee MJ, et al.

Med J Malaysia, 2008 Jul;63 Suppl A:55-6.

PMID: 19024981

This study evaluates the effect of maternal age, birth weight and infant sex on two main UCB parameters for use and long-term cryopreservation: TNC and volume. Data from 1000 UCB units were collected and analyzed in this study. The results indicate that TNC is correlated to infant birth weight and sex but not maternal age at delivery. Volume is only correlated to birth weight but not maternal age and infant sex.

Matched MeSH terms: Pilot Projects

Displaying publications 161 - 180 of 440 in total