Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya

Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya

Former name	King Edward VII College of Medicine
Type	Public Research university Medical school
Established	28 September 1905 (King Edward VII College of Medicine), September 1962 (Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya)[1][2]
Parent institution	University of Malaya
Dean	Professor Dr April Camilla Roslani
Location	Kuala Lumpur , Lembah Pantai , Malaysia 3°07′15″N 101°39′23″E / 3.12083°N 101.65639°E / 3.12083; 101.65639Coordinates: 3°07′15″N 101°39′23″E / 3.12083°N 101.65639°E / 3.12083; 101.65639
Website	medicine.um.edu.my

The Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya (commonly known as the UM Medical School, FoM UM, UM Medicine or Malaya Medicine) is one of the thirteen faculties of the University of Malaya (UM). It was officially established in September 1962 after the establishment of the university's Kuala Lumpur campus; it was the first medical school established in Malaysia.^[3]

The faculty is well-known for its medical education and research, especially in the discovery of the Nipah virus (1998–1999 Malaysia Nipah virus outbreak).^[4][5]

The faculty is widely regarded as the top medical school in Malaysia, being placed at No. 145 in the world in the subject of Medicine in the QS World University Subject Rankings 2021; this makes it the highest ranked medical school in Malaysia and the third highest in Southeast Asia.^[6]

History

The Faculty of Medicine was first established in Singapore as the Straits Settlements and the Federated Malay States Government Medical School in 1905, which trained physicians from present day Singapore and Malaysia.^[7][8] It was located within a former women's mental asylum at Sepoy Lines. The start of this medical school was significant in two ways. It trained local people to bring Western medicine to the population, and it was supported by merchants who took advantage of the tax exemptions to give generously to public causes. One notable donor was Tan Jiak Kim, a prominent Straits-born Chinese merchant. Another, Tan Chay Hoon, donated a building to the school in memory of his father, Tan Teck Guan. The Tan Teck Guan Building was built in 1911.^[9]

In 1921, the school was renamed the King Edward VII College of Medicine (KECM), after a donation from the Edward VII Memorial Fund.^[10] It was founded by Lim Boon Keng. In 1926, the College of Medicine Building was built to house the college in addition to the Tan Teck Guan Building. The dental school was founded shortly after.^[11]

During World War II, the college operated during the Japanese occupation of Singapore, but some people were killed. The first casualty was a fourth-year medical student based at Tan Tock Seng Hospital who was fatally wounded during the Battle of Singapore. While his friends were burying him, they were spotted by Japanese soldiers and eleven were killed on the spot. The dead are commemorated by the SGH War Memorial.^[12]

In 1949, the KECM merged with Raffles College to form the Singapore campus of UM.^[13] The medical school became the Faculty of Medicine of UM, and students in Malaysia wishing to study medicine would have to go to the campus in Singapore. In 1962, UM split into UM (Kuala Lumpur) and the University of Singapore, with the medical school in Singapore coming under the University of Singapore, while the UM in Kuala Lumpur established the present faculty. The founder Dean of the Faculty was Tan Sri Emeritus Prof Dr. Thamboo John Danaraj. On 5 May 2005, T.J. Danaraj Medical Library was named in memory of the Dean.^[14]

Admissions and programmes

The faculty provides several undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in the field of medical and health sciences. These include:

Teaching hospitals

• University of Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC)
  • The 1,617-bed UMMC is the first and largest teaching hospital as well as the second largest hospital in Malaysia. It serves as the primary teaching hospital for FoM and is one of the main tertiary hospitals in the Klang Valley, receiving over a million outpatients every year. It also serves as a referral centre from hospitals throughout the region.
• Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital, Klang

Departments

The faculty is made up of the following departments:^[19]

Research centres

The faculty includes the following research centres:^[20]

1. Centre of Excellence for Research in AIDS (CERiA)
   • Established in 2007 and is currently the only HIV and infectious diseases research centre in Malaysia and one of a few in the region.
2. Centre for Epidemiology and Evidence-Based Practice (CEBP)
3. Centre for Population Health (CePH)
   • Officially launched by the Vice-Chancellor of the UM on 18 February 2009.
4. National Orthopaedic Centre of Excellence for Research and Learning (NOCERAL)^[21]
   • Established in 2003, NOCERAL serves as a centre for education, research and a wide range of orthopaedic sub-specialty clinical services.^[22]
   • The centre is supported by Yayasan Ortopedik, which was set up by Dato' Dr Mahmood Merican in 2007 with an initial fund of RM500,000.
5. Shimadzu-UMMC Centre for Xenobiotic Studies (SUCXES)
6. University of Malaya Centre for Proteomics Research (UMCPR)
7. University of Malaya Eye Research Centre (UMERC)
8. University of Malaya Research Imaging Centre (UMRIC)
9. Tropical Infectious Disease Research and Education Centre (TIDREC)^[23]
   • Established in 2008, TIDREC serves as a focal point for national and international collaborative research on tropical infectious diseases as well as education that serves the health needs of global communities.
   • TIDREC is recognised as one of the Higher Institution Centre of Excellence (HICoE) by the Ministry of Higher Education (Malaysia), and it also houses the WHO Collaborating Centre for Arbovirus Reference & Research
   • First research centre in the Malaysia to install fully certified modular biosafety level 2 & 3 laboratories for research involving highly virulent pathogens. TIDREC is also the only centre currently operating a mock biosafety level 3 training facility.^[24]

Academic profile

Publications

Organisations

1. University of Malaya Medical Society (UM MedSoc)
   • The UM MedSoc has its roots to the Medical Society (Medsoc) that was first formed in 1949 at the University of Malaya in Singapore, headed by Mr Goon Sek Mun. Subsequently after the separation of Singapore from Malaysia, the present-day Faculty of Medicine was set up in the Kuala Lumpur campus of University of Malaya and a separate Medical Society was set up. It remains as the oldest medical student organisation and society in the medical fraternity in Malaysia. Till this date, the UM MedSoc has frequently collaborated with the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine's Medical Society to organise events for its members across Malaysia and Singapore, namely the MUNUS Games and most recently, MUUINUS in 2020, which was an online e-gaming competition held between the two medical schools, with an addition of University of Indonesia.
2. University of Malaya Students' Union (UMSU) - Faculty of Medicine
3. University of Malaya Medical Alumni Association

Notable alumni

Notable academics

• Professor Dato' Dr. Adeeba Kamarulzaman (Infectious Disease, HIV/AIDS)
  • First Asian president of the International AIDS Society, chair of the Malaysian AIDS Foundation, Adjunct Professor at Tulane University in New Orleans, and Adjunct Associate Professor at Yale University, Council Member of the Academy of Medicine of Malaysia
  • A member of the Nipah Virus Encephalitis Research Team which received the Merdeka Award
  • A member of the newly-established World Health Organization's Science Council, which consists of 9 highly influential and respected individuals in the field of health sciences.
• Emeritus Professor Dato' Dr Lam Sai Kit (Virology)
  • Received the Merdeka Award-Outstanding Scholastic Achievement and the University of Queensland (UQ) International Alumnus Award of the Year 2019
  • A member of the Nipah Virus Encephalitis Research Team which received the Merdeka Award
• Emeritus Professor Dato' Dr Goh Khean Lee (Gastroenterology)
  • Top-ranked academic in the country with the highest bibliometrics amongst professors in the biomedical field in Malaysia
  • Received the Merdeka Award, pioneer of the discipline of gastroenterology and endoscopy as an established sub-specialty in Malaysia, established the Gastrointestinal Endoscopy unit at the University of Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) which is now one of the only four centres in Asia to be awarded a "Centre of Excellence" recognition by the World Digestive Endoscopy Organization^[26]
• Professor Dato' Dr. Tunku Sara binti Tunku Ahmad Yahaya (Orthopedic Surgery)
  • First female Orthopaedic Surgeon in Malaysia
• Professor Datuk Dr. Awang Bulgiba Bin Awang Mahmud (Public Health)
  • First Malaysian doctor to gain a PhD in Health Informatics and the first public health physician in Malaysia to hold these four fellowships simultaneously (Fellow of Faculty of Public Health UK, Fellow of Public Health Medicine Malaysia, Fellow of Academy of Medicine Malaysia, Fellow of Academy of Science), Council Member of the Academy of Medicine of Malaysia
• Professor Dr. Ng Kwan Hoong (Medical Physics)
  • Asia's first Marie Sklodowska-Curie Award recipient, Recipient of the Merdeka Award in 2020
• Distinguished Professor Datuk Dr. Looi Lai Meng (Histopathology)
  • Recipient of the Merdeka Award, Inaugural National Distinguished Professor awarded by the Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia, Council Member of the Academy of Medicine of Malaysia^[27]
• Professor Datin Paduka Dr. Teo Soo-Hwang, OBE (Cancer Research)
  • Adjunct Professor at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya. She established Cancer Research Malaysia and remains the only living female Malaysian scientist to be awarded the Honorary Officer of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II.
• Professor Dr. Woo Yin Ling (Gynecologic Oncology)
  • Obtained the world’s highest score for her professional exams and pursued her PhD at the University of Cambridge, UK. She established Program ROSE, which introduces a revolutionary approach to cervical cancer screening that improves accessibility of testing and follow-up for women everywhere^[28]
• Professor Dr. Hany Binti Mohd Ariffin (Pediatric Oncology)
  • Won the Anugerah Akademik Negara award in 2015, received the Distinguished Researcher Award from UM in 2018 and has been the Malaysian lead for the Malaysia-Singapore (MASPORE) Leukaemia Study Group since 2003^[29]
• Professor Dr. Kulenthran Arumugam (Medical Law, Obstetrics and Gynaecology)
  • A doctor who is both a consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, holder of LLB Hons from the University of London, expert in Medico-Legal issues, epidemiologist, as well as having a rare distinction of holding two doctoral degrees, a Doctor of Medicine (MD) and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) from the University of Malaya.
• Professor Dr. Rosmawati Mohamed (Hepatology)
  • Master of the Academy of Medicine of Malaysia
• Professor Dr. Thong Meow Keong (Pediatrics, Clinical Genetics)
  • First clinical geneticist in Malaysia, President of the College of Paediatrics Academy of Medicine of Malaysia
• Professor Dr. April Camilla Roslani (Colorectal Surgery)
  • President of the College of Surgeons Academy of Medicine of Malaysia, president for the Asia-Pacific Federation of Coloproctology

Deans of the Faculty^[30]

1. Tan Sri Emeritus Professor Thamboo John Danaraj (The Founder Dean) - February 1963 ~ March 1975
2. Professor Datuk Dr. Lau Kam Seng - March 1975 ~ May 1976
3. Professor Dato' Dr Khairuddin Yusof - May 1976 ~ July 1977
4. Professor Datuk Dr K Somasundaram July 1977 ~ 28 February 1981
5. Professor Dr T.A. Sinnathuray 1 March 1981 ~ 13 May 1985
6. Professor Dato' Dr. Khairuddin Yusof - 13 May 1985 ~ 15 April 1986
7. Professor Dr Anuar Zaini Mohd. Zain - 16 April 1986 ~ 31 March 1990
8. Professor Dr Jason Teoh Soon Teong - 1 April 1990 ~ 31 March 1992
9. Professor Dato' Dr Anuar Zaini Mohd Zain - 1 April 1992 ~ 31 March 2000
10. Tan Sri Professor Dr Mohd Amin Jalaludin - 1 April 2000 ~ 31 July 2006
11. Professor Dato' Dr Ikram Shah Ismail - 1 August 2006 ~ 1 July 2011
12. Professor Dato' Dr Adeeba Kamarulzaman - 1 July 2011 ~ 2 December 2020
13. Professor Dr April Camilla Roslani - 3 December 2020 ~ Present

Achievements

• The Merdeka Award: Nipah Virus Encephalitis Investigation Team from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya^[31]
• In 2020, Subashan Vadibeler, a final year (Stage 3.3) medical student from the Faculty of Medicine, was awarded the Rhodes Scholarship. He was the 7th Malaysian to receive this prestigious scholarship.^[32] He was also the first student from a Malaysian university to receive this honour (the previous 6 Malaysians who at the time were awarded the scholarship were studying in universities overseas).

See also

• Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya
• University of Malaya
• University of Malaya Medical Centre
• National University of Singapore
• Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine

References