1st Annual Mayo Clinics

On 29 - 30 March, 2003 Normah Medical Specialist Centre hosted the first annual Oncology Conference with the principal speakers coming from the world renowned Mayo Clinics in the United States. With this premier event, Normah takes another step forward in bringing to reality the concept of international standards for education conferences to compliment our progression to become the preferred private healthcare provider of quality care in this region. The conference chairman was Dr. Kho Boon Chong and our CEO, Datuk Prof. Saw Huat Seong presided over the ceremonies.

The two day program was designed to meet the needs of every level of user of Normah services. The Public Forum on Day I presented the theme "Cancers are curable" followed by the first Doctors' Forum with the theme "Nasopharyngeal cancer - A Malaysian cancer ?". On Day II, the second Doctors' forum was titled "Cancer update for the Private Healthcare Givers".

A number of the Consultant Specialists of Normah Medical Specialist Centre (see Table A) presented excellent material related to the area of expertise of the individual Consultant. Many of these same excellent practitioners present similar programs throughout Asia and very often at the mini-conferences presented regularly at NMSC for public education of patients and regional General Practitioners (GP).

The invited speakers included local experts in addition to the speakers from the USA. Dr. Beena Devi shared information about the local hospice movement and Prof. Syed Hassan provided insight and education on the complexities of mental adjustment to cancer.

During the Public Forum segment, a most memorable presentation was offered by patients that are cancer survivors. The presentation was titled "Living with cancer - my experience".

The two distinguished speakers from Mayo Clinics were Dr. Joseph Rubin and Dr. Thomas McDonald. Dr. Rubin presented the programs "Non-surgical role in cancer treatment" and "What's new in GI Oncology ?".

Dr. McDonald presented the programs "An overview of Nasopharyngeal cancer" and "Assessment of patients with a lump in the neck".

Dr. McDonald came to the United States from Ireland 1964. He visited this region in 1967 when he visited a medical school companion in Kuala Lumpur. This was his first trip to Sarawak. He trained at Mayo Clinic from 1968 - 1972 in Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery and joined the staff in 1972. He is currently the Professor and Chair of the Department (since 1990) and also Chairs the International Relations Committee for Mayo. Dr. McDonald is active in teaching medical students and clinical research.

Dr. McDonald has received numerous awards and honours throughout his distinguished career and a review of some of the extraordinary contributions he has made to the International Medical Community and the developments at Mayo provide some clues to his success. In addition to the 178 professional publications to his credit, he is a journal reviewer for three major medical journals, serves on several National Committees, and is currently active in almost twenty clinical and operational committees. He has, at some point in his career, been a key member of all the essential quality oriented committees and programs at Mayo.

Dr. Joseph Rubin is Professor of Oncology at Mayo Clinic and is former Chair of the Division of Medical Oncology. He is the current Program Director for the Oncology Fellowship. Dr. Rubin has visited Kuching a number of times previously and was the reference Consultant in the development of the Oncology Program at Normah. He began his fellowship training at Mayo in 1970 and became an Associate Consultant in Medical Oncology at Mayo Clinic in 1975. Like Dr. McDonald, Dr. Rubin also served a time in the U.S. military. Dr. Rubin has been active in International Consulting for Medical Advancement. Besides Malaysia, he has experiences in Singapore and the Middle East. He sits on numerous committees at Mayo, is an active lecturer, and writer. Dr. Rubin has more than 140 medical publications, more than 100 presented abstracts, and has contributed chapters to a number of published text or reference books.

We are certainly honoured and privileged to be able to provide this knowledge base and experience to the public community and medical professionals of East Malaysia.

Table A

MR LILBURN TIPTON
Quality Consultant