University of Chulalongkorn Students Clinch Top Prize at Global University Medical Challenge

12-14 April 2019 – The Global University Medical Challenge (GUMC) was conducted for the second time in IMU, bringing together medical students from around the world to share their ideas, knowledge and experience, as well as to build new friendship and network to enhance their future careers. This Challenge is held in conjunction with the 10th Asian Medical Education Symposium (AMEA-2019). The theme for the Symposium was ‘4th Industrial Revolution: Creating A New World for Health Professions Education’. GEMx®, a sister organisation of ECFMG, which is an international organisation pioneering student engagement in international collaboration, sponsored the prizes of GUMC. ECFMG-FAIMER (Global Education in Medicine Services) Assistant Vice-President also joined the event. Attractive prizes were arranged: first prize of USD$ 2,400/team, 1st runner-up prize of USD$ 1,200/team and 2nd runner-up prize of USD$ 750/team along with 2 years of free GEMx Membership. AMEA-2019 committee and GUMC committee (chaired by Assoc Prof Dr Nilesh) consisting of senior academics from IMU’s School of Medicine along with academics from MAHSA University, Quest International University, UKM and UPM geared into action to draw a mixed participation from Malaysian Universities as well as other Universities in South Asia. A total 15 teams joined this competition.

Malaysian Universities	International Universities
Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM)	2 teams from Sri Lankan Universities (University of Colombo, University of Kelaniya)
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) – 2 teams	2 teams from Thailand (Chulalongkorn University)
Universiti Teknologi Mara	1 team from Pakistan (UCMD Lahore)
Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia
Monash University
Taylor’s University – 2 teams
International Medical University (IMU) – 2 teams

This year’s competition incorporated a new round where teams were required to show their communication skills, teamwork and understanding of the principles of medical ethics and professionalism in the presentation round on medical ethics. In this round, the teams were given a trigger with a medical ethics dilemma in clinical practice and they were asked to analyse their actions and identify the ethical principles involved.

12 April 2019
The pre-competition networking and ice-breaking event was held in the evening and well organised by IMU’s Semester 2 and Semester 3 medical students. The international and Malaysian teams introduced themselves in a colorful manner followed by MEDICAL CHARADE played by teams with a mixed representation of Malaysian and International students. The last part of the event was made even more exciting by the lecturers’ participation in the MEDICAL CHARADE.
13 April 2019
Round 1 was held, starting with USMLE questions competition from all clinical and pre-clinical disciplines conducted in a game-based computer application, followed by Round 2, presentation on ethics.
14 April 2019
0nly 8 teams (two teams from Chulalongkorn, two teams from Taylor’s, one each from UKM, Monash, USIM and Colombo) entered the semifinals, consisting of medicine, surgery, O & G, pre-clinical and Kahoot rounds. Only 4 teams (UKM, Chulalongkorn, two teams from Taylor’s) reached the final round held at IMU’s auditorium on the afternoon of 14 April. In the Final round, there was a tough competition among the four teams with the addition of Emerging Global Health round. Ultimately, swift answers from Chulalongkorn team in the Kahoot round gave them the edge to win the GUMC-2019. UKM team bagged the 1st runner-up position and one of the Taylor’s University team bagged 2nd runner-up position.

The GUMC committee is grateful to Dr Arun Kumar, Dr Htet Htet, Prof James Koh, Prof Esha, Prof Shahid, A/Prof Yushak and Dr Tun Yee (IMU); A/Prof Mamunur (QIUP), Dr Rafidah (UPM) and Dr Puteri (UPM) for their enormous contribution to the judging and vetting process in improving the quality of the challenge.