8th National Perinatal Symposioum

All colleagues at IHS, in particular the nursing colleagues and their students,  are invited to join the symposium.  You can address your registration to Madame Darinah Haji Abdul Manaf  (Head of Registration Committee at IHS)  for now, there will be other members of registration committee to be announced later.

LOCAL NEWS: PAPRSB IHS To Have New Buildings

The Pengiran Anak Puteri Rashidah Sa'adatul Bolkiah Institute of Health Sciences (PAPRSB IHS) is building new extension buildings that will triple its current size. Dr Hajah Maslina binti Hj Mohsin, Dean of PAPRSB IHS, said the new building would include new lecture rooms, theatres, clinic, and health centre and incorporate a simulation area for health students at the institute.

In relation to the clinic, she said the patients will be the students in the university, including those in other faculties. However, if there is a need to extend the services to the community in the area, it will be possible, but naturally it would not be logical to overlap services from the Ministry of Health in that area.

Asked about the possibility in the future to eventually set up a university hospital. Dr Hjh Maslina, who is also the Director of Health Services in the country, said setting up a university hospital is a totally new ball game. But Brunei is hoping to build a second hospital in Brunei-Muara District, and the proposed area might not be far from the university campus.

Dr Mohd Ayub Sadiq @ Lin Naing, the Deputy Dean of PAPRSB IHS said, with the new extension, it is now possible for the institute to provide the students with simulation wards and incorporate real patient clinic. The institute is attracting students locally as well as from abroad. He said there is still room for more students to enrol in the institute. It is important to educate students that health services in a noble profession. The emergence of "centres of excellence" like the Pengiran Anak Puteri Rashidah Sa'adatul Bolkiah Institute of Health Sciences will not be "at the expense of" the institutions in the UK, Mr Rob Fenn, the British High Commissioner said yesterday during his visit.

These institutions in the UK have for so long attracted Bruneian students, he said. "Public health and education occupy strategic positions in Brunei's national life, and are areas where the UK and Brunei can take their longstanding partnership to new levels. "I am a strong supporter of human capital development here in Brunei, as well as in the UK. This is not a zero sum game … quite the reverse, especially in highly technical areas such as medicine."

"The fact that Brunei's ministers of health and education have both visited the UK this year to explore partnerships with British universities and teaching hospitals underscores the fact that we are together looking for new ways to strengthen Brunei's public health infrastructure. I hope this can extend to areas such as improved IT and management information systems, drawing on British expertise in that key area," he said.

During the visit, the British official was briefed by the Dean of PAPRSB IHS, Dr Hajah Maslina, who is also the Director of Health Services, Ministry of Health. The British high commissioner also heard from Dr Mohd Ayub Sadiq @ Lin Naing, the Deputy Dean of PAPRSB and Hjh Jainah binti Hj Musa, progamme Leader of Nursing and Midwifery.

By Azaraimy HH

URL: Borneo Bulletin

UBD Open Day 2011

Inter-Faculty Debate Competition

Blood Donation Campaign in Kiulap, February 17th

An Artist Drew Our Building

Artist name: Nabil Fikri Haronli

Go to URL: My World of Potraits

BMedSci (Honours) Graduation at University of Nottingham

10th December 2010, a graduation ceremony was held for the students of University of Nottingham to award (among others) Bachelor of Medical Sciences (Honours) degrees. Among these students were 3 of Cohort 2 of IHS' BHSc/Medicine students: Divyen Menon, Dk Nur Izyan Nadhirah Binti Pg Mohammad and Muhd Najib Adib Bin Hj Muhd Naibi.

Mohammad Ibnu Walid and Muhammad Noh in The Brunei Times

SALLY PIRI

BRUNEI-MUARA

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Our Medicine graduates,
 Mohammad Ibnu Walid (L) and Muhammad Noh (R)

AWARENESS on the importance of pap smear screening in Brunei is low amid the world's concern on the high number of cervical cancer which is the second most common malignancy in women.

This was part of the outcome of a research prepared by two graduate students of the Pengiran Anak Puteri Rashidah Sa'adatul Bolkiah Institute of Health Sciences (PAPRSB IHS), Mohammad Noh Hj Latip and Muhamad Ibnu Walid Hj Adi. 

Both presented the paper on "Knowledge, Perceptions and Attitudes on Pap Smear Tests among Bruneians" during a session of the 9th Biennial International Nursing Conference at Universiti Brunei Darussalam yesterday.

"The knowledge on risk factors, prevention and symptoms of cervical cancer are poor and therefore intervention in increasing this knowledge need to be emphasised," said Muhamad Ibnu, adding that awareness regarding the importance of pap smear screening from both male and female population need further improvement.

They conducted a survey using a structured self-administered questionnaire to 368 people 165 of which are male respondents. All respondents were Bruneians or permanent residents between the age of 18 to 60 years old and mentally competent.

Mohammad Noh said that more than 10 per cent of the women respondents were not aware that pap smear screening is provided in the Sultanate. The figures of male respondents who were unaware were higher.

"People should be aware that pap smear screening does exist here and they should have adequate knowledge on the importance of the screening as cervical cancer is dangerous among women," Mohammad Noh said.

Both students agree that it is important to involve men in the effort to raise the awareness on pap smear tests as under family paternalistic culture, men play important roles on decision-making.

According to their survey, 20.8 per cent of women and 38.7 per cent of men are afraid of the screening test. Also, 49.5 per cent of women and 50 per cent of men said that unmarried women do not need to undergo a pap smear test. Meanwhile, 67.3 per cent women and 62.8 per cent men have the perception that pap smear tests can cause loss of virginity.

Both stressed on the need for married women to go for pap smear tests.

LATEST NEWS: Kryptonite superglue can enhance the recovery of heart surgery patients

Dr. Paul Fedak 

October 26, 2010 (Montreal, Quebec City) — Superman avoided kryptonite, one of the few things that could bring him down, but cardiac surgeons might one day willingly embrace another form ofKryptonite (Doctors Research Group, Southbury, CT), used to seal the sternums of patients who go under the surgeon's saw.

Kryptonite, a bone cement that bonds the breastbone after CABG surgery, improves patient quality-of-life scores and spirometry measurements, reduces pain and physical disability, and cuts the amount of pain medication needed after surgery, according to results of the Sternal Innovative Closure with Kryptonite (STICK) study.

Led by Dr Paul Fedak (University of Calgary, AB) and presented this week here at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress 2010, the study showed that when used in addition to traditional wires that close the chest, the bone cement completely seals the breastbone within 24 hours and is designed to be integrated with native bone as the body heals.

"A lot of medicine is moving away from invasive surgeries to procedures that can be done less invasively," said Fedak. "But patients often stay away from invasive procedures to their own detriment. There is a lot that we can do with an open chest cavity. And with open-heart surgery, it's usually not the heart the patient worries about, but rather the long, painful recovery associated with cutting open the sternum."

Tested in 55 Stable CABG Patients

Bone cement commonly used by orthopedic surgeons is known as polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), but it is a "toxic, synthetic product" that doesn't fully heal, explained Fedak. The Kryptonite bone cement, on the other hand, is a biocompatible polymer made of triglycerides, extracted from the castor bean plant, and calcium chloride. The product exists in a liquid form but changes within minutes to moldable putty, eventually hardening into a light, porous, and strong bonelike substance within 24 hours.

"What's also very cool about it is that it creates a regenerative scaffold where native bone cells can enter into it and lay down new bone," said Fedak. "It actually heals and allows for osteointegration. Those properties, and the fact that it bonds very specifically to bone and not other tissues, like the heart, lungs, or other soft tissues, make it ideal for cardiac surgery. Adhesives haven't been used like this before. People have used all kinds of things to promote healing of the chest bone, but nothing that will turn it into a rock-solid stable sternum within 24 hours."

Last year, Fedak and colleagues tested the strength of the cement in cadavers, showing that it was able to withstand increasing forces designed to simulate coughing and flexion of the torso. In this latest single-center study, the group tested the use of Kryptonite in 55 stable patients undergoing CABG surgery. As noted, patients reported less pain, required fewer narcotics for pain management, and had improved spirometry measurements. In addition, two functional scales--health-related quality of life and physical disability--were also improved in patients treated with the bone cement compared with controls.

"After surgery, traditionally, patients have some degree of physical disability and dysfunction, and then over weeks they recover and get back to normal. In cardiac surgery, that normally takes about six to eight weeks. With Kryptonite, we're seeing it around four or five weeks. Patients had less pain, better breathing, and recovery time reduced by a couple of weeks."

There were no reported side effects or adverse outcomes, but surgeons need to be mindful of the chest tubes running underneath the breastplate as the sternum is closed so that these do not adhere to the glue. Currently, the glue has been tested only in stable patients, and investigators are cautious about using the cement in unstable patients or those at high risk for postoperative bleeding, mainly because it requires more time to reenter the chest cavity if needed.

To heartwire , Fedak said that cardiac surgery has evolved significantly over the past 50 years, with much research into minimally invasive procedures, on- and off-pump CABG surgery, and even robotics. One thing that hasn't changed during this period of innovation, he said, is how surgeons close the sternum, noting that wire cerclage closure of sternotomy is used just as it was when the procedure was first performed.

"The wires themselves are not a problem," he said. "It's just that we're asking them to do too much over too long a period of time. With the cement, we're using the wires for what they're good at, which is bringing the edges of the bone together, but they're not good at keeping that bone together over a long period of time. Now, with the cement, we're only asking the wires to work for the first day."

Cortesy of Michael O'Riordan (2010) Surgical Kryptonite: Bone Cement Improves QoL and Physical Disability in CABG Patients.

Performance during the Graduation Night for Medicine Cohort 3 by the ladies from Kagawa University