KUBANG KERIAN, KELANTAN, 24 May 2015 – The Master of Surgery (Plastic Surgery) Programme offered by the School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) is proven to be able to produce plastic surgeons of high calibre, knowledgeable and highly-skilled in the field of plastic and reconstructive surgery.

Those were the opinions of Professor Surajit Bhattacharya from India and Professor Jeong Tae Kim from the Republic of Korea, two plastic and reconstructive surgeons well-known in Asia and throughout the world, who visited the USM Health Campus here as external examiners to the 14 candidates undergoing the training programme.

“I considered this programme to be well-planned, systematic and structured, even the specialised training which the future plastic surgeons need to undergo is very comprehensive, to ensure every candidate has a wide theoretical knowledge, and having the essential clinical and practical skills in the respective field,” said Surajit, who has more than 35 years of experience in the fields of plastic, reconstructive and microsurgery, and now serving at the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, King George’s Medical College, Lucknow, India.

He added, “although the candidates need to undergo various strenuous assessments and examinations within three successive days as required under the programme, I found that the candidates were not feeling stressful at all, and even showing a high degree of self-confidence, which reflects the curriculum and training that they went through had equipped them with very strong basics and prepared them for such examination.”

Meanwhile, Professor and Chairperson of the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, College of Medicine, Hanyang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea, Jeong said, he was impressed with the examination procedures of the Master of Surgery (Plastic Surgery) Programme, which allows the external examiners to have direct interaction with every candidate within the three days to know them closely, in a more professional manner to identify their strengths and weaknesses, including their practicing ethics and advising them in whichever areas necessary for improvement.

“In short, it allows us to provide a more accurate and objective assessment on the performance of each candidate, in producing a truly capable plastic and reconstructive surgeon who could provide the best and most optimised treatment to the patient,” said Jeong who had been a consultant at St. Andrew’s Hospital, Chelmsford, UK and University Medical Centre Groningen in Groningen, Netherlands during his close to 30 years practicing in this field.

The Dean of the School of Medical Sciences (USM), Professor Dr. Ahmad Sukari Halim said, this USM Master of Surgery (Plastic Surgery) Programme is the only advanced degree programme based on specialised training in the field of plastic and reconstructive surgery available in Malaysia.

“This programme has received the support and cooperation from the Ministry of Health Malaysia (KKM), with the aim to train medical graduates to become clinical specialists in the related fields, to cater to the needs of the nation which is still lacking in accredited specialist plastic surgeons.

“The number of accredited plastic surgeons locally is close to 40 people, and the situation would become more critical by the year 2020, when the country achieves developed nation status with an expected population of 70 million, as by then the nation should have at least 120 specialists in plastic surgery,” added Sukari, who was part of the “Mercy Malaysia-USM Cleft Lip and Palate Patients Surgery Project (CLIPP)” humanitarian mission in Bangladesh in 2010.

Besides being external examiners for this programme, Surajit and Jeong too were invited to conduct a Manuscript Writing Workshop (From the Editors Desk) during their visit here recently.

The workshop organised by the Reconstructive Science Unit, School of Medical Sciences USM and the Malaysian Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (MSPRS) has attracted the participation of close to 70 people on the first day and 40 people on the second, consisting of practicing doctors who are doing their post-graduate studies as well as specialists in plastic surgery form the public and private hospitals such as Hospital Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), Hospital Kuala Lumpur, and KPJ Johor Specialist Hospital.

Surajit (Editor, Indian Journal of Plastic Surgery) has authored more than 90 publications in local and international journals while Jeong (Editor Emeritus, Archives of Plastic Surgery) has contributed more than 140 publications in his field of practice.

Others who attended the workshop were the lecturers who are also specialist plastic surgeons at the Hospital USM, Dr. Wan Azman Wan Sulaiman and Dr. Arman Zaharil Mat Saad. - Translation: Mazlan Hanafi Basharudin/Text: Tan Ewe Hoe/Photos: Dzulfikar Azmi Muhamad Aripin @ Isa