FOUR MOST IMPORTANT ACHIEVEMENTS IN MY LIFE AS A HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONAL

FOUR MOST IMPORTANT ACHIEVEMENTS IN MY LIFE AS A HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONAL

In my 25 years of my professional career as a medical researcher at the Institute for Medical Research from 1969 – 1994, it was not the result of some 4 dozens research papers published, or was it some few hundred patients who consulted me for treatment after my retirement from the Malaysian Civil Service, that were my best contributions, but I consider four achievements below to be my best golden goals.

1. Food Laws: I was one of the experts sitting in numerous Technical Committees to establish Food Standards for Malaysia. I have to attend countless technical meetings from 1969 – 1990 at SIRIM to do this. Our efforts finally culminated in the establishment of the Food Act 1983, and the Food Regulations 1985 for Malaysia. So if you see the compulsory food labels on every packet of food product you buy in the supermarkets or shops today you may think of me. Rest assured most of the foods ingredients declared in the food labels are legally obligatory to ensure the food you buy on the supermarkets contains the ingredients as declared and conform to safety standards we recommended.

2. TCM degrees from Chinese universities recognized: My team of 3 doctors, supporting staff and I pioneered in helping the Government integrate Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) into the mainstream health care system in the country. Thus today, we can see doctors trained in TCM from China practicing TCM in many government hospitals. Their presence in other hospitals is widening since the initial trial basis was a success. Additionally, our doctors are being sent to China to learn TCM. A number of universities in China, such as Shanghai Medical University of TCM, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine and Nanjing Universities offering the Bachelor’s degree in Medicine (TCM) have been recognized since the beginning of this year. Malaysian Health Minister Datuk Liow Tiong Lai said that 2 more Chinese universities, the Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine and the Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine which he would be visiting will be added for recognition soon. All these universities in China offer a 5 years degree course in TCM which is similar in duration to the MBBS course elsewhere. Graduates from these universities in China are recognized by the Public Service Dept. which allows these doctors to practice both in government and private hospitals in the country. This recognition by the government has also stimulated a number of private universities in the country, example INTI University College, International Medical University, Management and Science University etc to offer similar degree courses in TCM besides courses in conventional medicine. TCM graduates are now working side-by-side with allopathic doctors in government and private hospitals, and they now enjoy the same salaries and work benefits as their allopathic medical counterparts. There were very good responses given to traditional and complementary medicine services introduced initially in three government hospitals — Putrajaya Hospital, Kepala Batas Hospital, Penang, and Sultan Ismail Hospital, Johor — under a pilot project by the Health Ministry a few years ago. Currently another 3 more government hospitals are having TCM doctors practicing there because of the tremendous acceptance and success of the program. This is an achievement for me and my medical colleagues to see alternative medicine being slowly recognized.

3. The establishment of SugaI Buloh hospital: My other colleagues consisting of 4 doctors, an anthropologist, nurses, medical technologists and I were commissioned by the MOH to do a study on the feasibility of replacing the old Sungai Buloh Leprosy Hospital into a modern general hospital. Our efforts and recommendations in the late 1980s finally resulted in the establishment of a multi-million ringgit ultra-modern General Hospital in Sungai Buloh we see today. We were commissioned to do this study by the Ministry of Health (MOH) when we were working at the Institute for Medical Research. The result of our 2-year study resulting in 3 big volumes of Technical Report, and 2 smaller volumes of Executive Report containing numerous recommendations to the Ministry of Health has resulted in this brand new ultra modern hospital in Sg. Buloh. This General Hospital in Sg. Buloh can be clearly be seen by anyone who uses that hospital today for treatment, or can be seen by anyone who passes that area. I feel so proud to see the fruits of our effiorts.

4. Clinical trial on Palm Oil: A team of scientists and specialist doctors led by me helped to prove that Palm Oil does not damage health or raise blood cholesterol as claimed by the American Soybean Association in the 1980s. It was a clinical trial with human subjects, and a very difficult one to conduct as we have to deal with hundreds of students involved in the study. We finally managed to publish our findings in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition – a scientific journal no Malaysian has ever managed to get his paper published there. But we did – the first for Malaysia. So almost all the vegetable cooking oil we buy today contains palm oil, and it is one of the best oil to use for health reasons, and we assure you palm oil does not raise blood cholesterol.

Taking it easier now:

But I hardly practice these days after my retirement. Currently I am a Special Medical and Science Adviser, and Head of the Technical Advisory Board to the Dynapharm Pharmaceutical Group. But occasionally, I do see patients as a favour for my former medical colleagues and their patients. Sometimes it was for relatives and friends. But my interest is mainly in research, writing articles like this one, and not doing something else which is routine and boring.

Hobbies:

Astronomy and music (violin) are very much in my vein. I play the violin often and have performed at the Kuala Lumpur Symphony Orchestra. But I try to spread out my interest as broadly as possible to make life more balanced and holistic. My friends constantly remind me I am wasting all my talents, university training, and the very huge investments I put in for my education but was unable to churn out money.

But fortunately it was not just my money, but also the British tax-payers’ money that I was investing. I got a few scholarships from the Britain Government to do my postgraduate at British universities. It was based entirely on academic merits. They condition of the scholarship was that I must return to Malaysia to help the country, but later they changed the condition based on my performance. They cancelled that condition that I need to return to Malaysia. Instead, they asked me to stay back in England by offering me a job there.

Opportunities have already came and gone by me. My friends saw me as one who was, and still is, more interested in counting the number of stars in heaven, than counting ringgit and cents on Earth. They forgot that if I were to be given another chance in life, I would immediately choose to become an astronaut, or a pilot and nothing else.

My interest in astronomy and aviation enable me to go high up there above the irritating clouds and city lights to behold before my eyes, a 3 dimensional panoramic view of all the stars and galaxies, all the creations of God, and the heavens, glittering against an immensely deep, void and dark space. There I shall stay, not wanting to return to Earth to do anything else, but to gaze and gaze at the endless wonders of heavenly wealth that far surpass the ringgit, dollars and cents on Earth. It shall truly be first-hand view of something so immensely huge, unprecedented by anything else on Earth.