IMU Faculty and Students Shine at Malaysian Dietitians' Association Conference

10-11 July 2017 – IMU faculty and students shine at the 23rd Malaysian Dietitians’ Association Conference in Istana Hotel, Kuala Lumpur by receiving many awards and winning many prizes. The conference entitled ‘Advancing Clinical Nutrition Care in Dietetics’ was attended by over 350 dietitians from various countries. It was officiated by Director-General of Health Malaysia, YBhg. Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah. In his Facebook post on 10 July, YBhg Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said, “This morning I officiated the 23rd National Conference of the Malaysian Dietitians’ Association held in Kuala Lumpur with the theme “Advancing Clinical Nutrition Care in Dietetics“, and launched the Medical Nutrition Therapy Guidelines for Critical Care. The Malaysian Dietitians’ Association (MDA) has about 1,000 members consisting of dietitians from numerous organisations, working in the public sector, private sector and NGOs. The MOH is cognisant of and recognises the importance of dietitians and their unique role in the curative as well as preventive, promotive and rehabilitative aspects of healthcare.’

“Dietitians are important members of the multidisciplinary healthcare team who ensure early nutrition support is provided to aid the recovery of patients so they can return to their normal lives as soon as possible. More importantly, the role of dietitians in preventative medicine is paramount, especially since the prevalence of obesity and NCDs are increasing in this country. This is in line with the objectives of the National Strategic Plan for NCD (NSP-NCD: 2011-2015) a prevention and control programme developed to tackle the increasing prevalence of NCD risk factors in a more systematic, effective and efficient manner.”

At this Conference, IMU’s Dean of School of Health Sciences, Prof Winnie Chee received the Fellowship Award from MDA for her immense contribution to field of dietetics in Malaysia. She was also unanimously re-elected as the President of MDA, the 13th Council for 2017-2019. Clinical instructor cum dietitian of IMU, Ng Kar Foo, was awarded the MDA Outstanding Clinical Instructor Award as a recognition for his work as Clinical Instructor; chosen among Clinical Instructors of 7 universities offering Dietetics programme in Malaysia. Mr Ng is also re-elected as the 13th Council Member of the MDA for 2017-2019.

Wong Ting Xuan, final year BSc (Hons) Dietetics with Nutrition student from the cohort DN113 won the first prize for the MDA Student Case Study Oral Presentation. Wong presented her case entitled “Nutritional Management for a patient receiving PEG feeding complicated with diarrhoea and pressure ulcer”.

Final year BSc (Hons) Dietetics with Nutrition student from the cohort DN113, Philip Lee, won the first prize for the MDA Student Case Study Poster Presentation. Philip presented his poster entitled “Enteral nutrition management of Congestive Cardiac failure with acute kidney injury”.

Dr Harvinder Kaur, an alumni and lecturer with the Division of Nutrition and Dietetics won the first prize for Best Research Poster Competition for her poster entitled Structured Lifestyle Intervention based on a Trans-cultural Diabetes Nutrition Algorithm (tDNA) in individuals with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. Dr Harvinder also won the 2nd Prize for Postgraduate Best Thesis Award. Prof Winnie Chee was Dr Harvinder’s PhD supervisor.

Ling Sheau Hui our alumni from ND1/12 won the 3rd prize for Outstanding Undergraduate Dietetics Student Award.