The coordination of Continuing Medical Education (CME) for medical staff and for the general public is one of the primary functions of the Corporate Affairs Division at Normah Medical Specialist Centre.

CME can be simply defined as any and all means by which Doctors and other healthcare professionals continue to learn after completion of their formal education. For the general public, CME events present an excellent opportunity to gain knowledge and understanding about diseases and disease prevention as well as good health practices.

Below are photos of some of the many CME events presented at Normah during the first quarter of 2004.

Some of the participants and attendees at the Awareness
of Occupational Health & Safety seminar

The annual conference of industrial accidents demonstrates a direct relationship between increasing numbers of accidents and the economic growth of the country. The increase in the number of industrial accidents each year results in hundreds of lives and millions of work hours lost due to temporary, partial, or permanent total disablement. In view of all this, NMSC organized an awareness talk on occupational health safety for all senior managers, supervisors and staff of companies around Kuching who are directly responsible for the Occupational Health & Safety (OHS) aspects in their respective organizations.

Dr. Angstman and some attendees at his public forum lecture

In May 2004, the visiting Mayo Clinics Consulting Team included Dr. Greg Angstman, the CEO of Mayo Health Systems in Minnesota, USA. Dr. Angstman presented many education and counselling sessions during the visit at NMSC, including one seminar open to the general public. The topic was on Disease Prevention and Management.

Parents and children attending the lecture

Another public forum presentation was by Dr. Alex Lu, Consultant Paediatrician entitled The Importance of Child Immunization.

Quantum Perspective on Organization Relationship
In her book titled Leadership and the New Science, Martha Wheatley writes the following observation about Particle Interaction from a document produced by the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory at the University of California. “In a moment of time too brief to comprehend, two mesons enter a bubble chamber. As they interact with different energy potentials, twelve different particles appear temporarily”.

Mesons are sub-atomic particles that occur in various forms (and with different energy potentials). The value of the knowledge gained from this is that these particles exist - no matter how transient. In organizations, each personal encounter creates many ‘relationship particles’.

Compare the brief encounter (or collision) of particles to the meeting of individuals within an organization or service providers with their customers. There are many “relationship particles” created during each step of the encounter. Each one has a life of its own. The “particles” exist in various forms. They might be positive first impressions, service satisfaction, colleague support, or a happy work environment. There can also be negative complications such as anxious relationships, professional animosity, and others too numerous to count.

Although fleeting - but infinitely important - these “transient particles” generated in each relationship encounter impact the success of our organization. We must consider the impact of each element of the encounter. Ms. Wheatley questions in an organization, which is more influential on behaviour - the system or the individual? The reality is that each is in some way, a function of the other. It is a dynamic unity wherein each enhances or diminishes the other directly.

Similar to the two approaching particles, the outcomes of relationships have numerous possibilities that depend upon the input of particular “energy potentials”. The elements that determine the reality of the organization’s system are the input of the individual, the events surrounding the encounter, and the atmosphere surrounding the relationship - potential is simply potential - Quality outcomes and organizational success depend upon each of us as individuals and the “relationship particles” we create.

Editor