Education for Sustainable Development:

The Medical Paradigm

PROFESSOR DR JAMUNA VADIVELUHEAD, MERDU

FACULTY OF MEDICINEUNIVERSITY OF MALAYA

Introduction• Education for health can profoundly

influence sustainable development in terms of human welfare and lifestyle.

• Mankind cannot achieve sustainable development when there are recurrent chronic diseases.

• Mankind cannot maintain their population without a reactive health care system and healthy lifestyle.

THE MBBS CURRICULUM

FIVE YEAR COURSE

THREE PHASES

THREE STRANDS

MBBS Curriculum in University of Malaya• Content of the medical course is divided

into three main strands.THE SCIENTIFIC

BASIS OF DISEASE

MBBS

PROFESSIONAL AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

DOCTOR,PATIENT,HEALTH AND SOCIETY

(DPHS)

PHASE OF STUDY SCIENTIFIC BASIS DOCTOR, PATIENT HEALTH AND SOCIETY (DPHS)

PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT (PPD)

Phase I Normal Human Body & Its Function (52 weeks)

Core  And

 Systems

CommunityMedicine

 Behavioural

Science 

CommunicationSkills

 CommunityFamily Case

Studies (CFCS) 

Attitude, Character and Ethics (ACE)

  Management

  Electives

Phase IIBody’s Reaction to Injury(52 weeks)

Phase IIIPractice-Based Medicine(142 weeks)

Curriculum Chart

MBBS Curriculum Timeline

Phase I The Normal Human Body and its Function

Phase II The Body’s Reaction to Injury

Phase IIIA CLINICAL POSTINGS

Phase IIIB CLINICAL POSTINGS

Phase IIIB CLINICAL POSTINGS

YR 1

YR 2

YR 3

YR 4

YR 5

Introduction to clinical practice

Phase Two Elective

Phase Three A Elective

New Integrated Curriculum:Elective Programme • Phase Two Elective

• Enable students to learn skills and knowledge that is not in the formal curriculum

• Improve student interaction with patient and community

Elective programme:The past • Aimed to study the impact of health on

human population.• Projects were inflexibly structured within

the formal curriculum. • Lack of diverse approaches in the

understanding of medicine from a traditional viewpoint.

Traditional and complementary medicine (T&CM) in Malaysia

• Multi-cultural society consisting of Malays (and indigenous people), Chinese and Indians.

• T&CM is deeply embedded in the respective cultures and influences their health care practices.

• Ministry of Health (MOH) formed the Traditional and Complementary Medicine Division (T&CMD) in 2004 to ensure highly regulated qualified practices.

Elective programme:New policy• 2012: the elective programme was

restructured to • Broaden students’ perspective in

dynamic changes in healthcare without prejudice.

• Aimed at medical students to value and affirm their traditional knowledge in health advocacy.

Elective programme:New policy• Grouping: Five to six students per group

• 43 groups (2012) • 34 groups (2013)

• In 2013, each group consisted of members from different races and genders.

Elective programme:New policy• Each group was free to choose their

research interests and was advised to look for preferable and appropriate supervisors.

• E-learning platform provided guidelines:

Writing proposal

Project presentatio

n Report Ethics

application

Elective programme:New policy• Students presented their oral or poster

presentations by the end of the elective programme.

• Student organised the event:

• Monitored by two faculty coordinators.

Logistics Tables, chairs, poster boards

etc

Equipment Projector,

public address

system etc

Programme events

Presentation orders, flow

etc

Session moderators

& judges

Assessment • Two different rubrics were developed to

evaluate oral and poster presentations.

Assessment: Poster presentation • Poster presentation assessed two major

aspects• Total: 40 marks

Poster Aspect (30 marks)

a. Organisation

b. Design

c. Content Oral Aspect (10 marks)

a. Presenters’ personal styles

b. Delivery

c. Timing

Assessment: Oral presentation • Oral presentation assessed two major

aspects: • Total: 40 marks

Power Point Aspect (30 marks)

a. Story board

b. Design

c. Content

d. Evidence of learning

Oral Aspect (10 marks)

a. Presenters’ personal styles

b. Delivery

c. Timing

Assessment:Based on additional presentation methods

• Students’ oral presentations may have included:

• Separate rubrics were designed.

BrochuresLive

demonstrations

Sketches

Assessment:Results

• 2012: • Students’ mean was 30.2/40.0 (SD=3.2).

• 2013:• Students’ mean was 29.5/40.0 (SD=2.5).

Examples of projects• Acupuncture: concepts and benefits• Efficacy of foot reflexology as an alternative

medicine• Quranic verses: secrets of healing• Solat from medical perspective (Poster)• Modern Qigong and its benefits• T’ai Chi and its benefits to our health

(Video)• How Yoga affects the psychological aspects

of the practitioners

Discussion:Key to successes • As the event organisers, students adopted

independency.

• The process of organising this event helped students in developing sense of belonging

Discussion:Key to successes • One of the key successes was learner

autonomy.

• Students were free to choose their project topics and select their desirable supervisors.

• Students seemed to truly enjoy the experience in • video production• field work

Discussion:Key to successes • Learner autonomy does not mean students

to be left on their own.

• The programme would not have been successfully conducted without a close monitoring from the two faculty coordinators.

Discussion: Areas for improvements• Some students still chose to research into

clinical sciences:• Influenced by their supervisors in

deciding the project title, or • Students have no originality in opinions

• Unless students recognise the importance of T&CM, they would not choose to explore T&CM.

Conclusion• Through practicing learner autonomy,

medical students became active learners.• Students learnt multicultural interchanges,

leadership and teamwork, sharing of resources and research skills.

• This policy could be seen as a starting point for students to develop interest in balancing uses of both modern health science and T&CM in sustaining desirable human lifestyle.

End -Thank you

Medical Education & Research Development Unit (MERDU), Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Malaysia.

Dean

Deputy Dean

HeadMERDU

Academic, administrative & support staff