Newcastle University

Nusajaya, 4 July 2013 – The nation’s leading medical experts and educators gathered today to share the latest developments in healthcare training in Malaysia.  Over 100 specialists attended the second day of an inaugural national conference that discussed innovations in the use of patient simulation.  The two day Simulation User Network (SUN) meeting was held at Newcastle University Medicine Malaysia (NUMed), a leading British university, which uses several cutting edge patient simulation products at its state-of-the-art campus in Nusajaya. 
 
One of the event organisers was Professor Philip Bradley, Academic Dean at NUMed. He said that the use of patient simulators has revolutionised the way medical training is delivered at the university: “The advancements have allowed us to place less emphasis on theory based teaching and instead provide comprehensive hands-on training that contextualises learning objectives and prepares students for the clinical environment and real-life patients.” 
The event was hosted in collaboration with Laerdal Medical, a company that has been at the cutting edge of innovative healthcare training since 1960. Patient simulation is traditionally associated with real-life volunteers role-playing as medical patients for the purpose of training medical students. This interactive training method is one of the ways the students’ professional communication skills are developed to facilitate the delivery of patient-centric care. It ensures that they are able to diagnose symptoms and prescribe a treatment that will provide a cure while addressing the patient’s own ideas, concerns and expectations. 

Today the use of simulated patients in the form of mannequins is also becoming more prominent. These lifelike models offer students the opportunity to rehearse clinical scenarios and critical incidents, making it possible to go beyond the development of communication skills and also build-up realistic hands-on experience. The mannequins also improve patient safety. 
In recent years significant advances have been made in the field of patient simulators, resulting in mannequins that are more sophisticated, realistic and readily available than ever before. This has increased the extent to which they can be used for medical training, as well as their effectiveness in such learning environments.

At NUMed these mannequins are used across a variety of training scenarios that prepare the medical students for everything from standard procedures to acute care situations. They are able to practice techniques to clear a patient’s airways or insert an intravenous drip line into a vein, as well as treat acute care emergencies such as heart-attack or septic shock. 
One important outcome of the SUN conference will be the establishment of a Special Interest Group for simulation which will provide an opportunity for medical educators across Malaysia who are interested in the use of simulation to get together and share ideas and best practice. 

About NUMed

Newcastle University UK, has established an international branch campus in Johor, Malaysia to provide its undergraduate degrees in Medicine (MB BS) and the Biomedical Sciences (BSc), and opportunities for postgraduate study. The programmes of study are equivalent to those of Newcastle’s UK-based provision, and lead to the award of the same degrees. By choosing to study at NUMed Malaysia, students will obtain a reputable UK qualification, from an internationally recognized university, at a cost significantly less than that of studying in the UK. The undergraduate Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery (MB BS) degrees were launched in 2009 and BSc degrees in the Biomedical Sciences were launched earlier this year with the first intake being September 2013. Many of the programmes offer opportunities for periods of study in the UK.

For Media Enquiries:
Pelham Bell Pottinger Asia 
Suzanna Bain 
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Email: SBain@pbp.asia">SBain@pbp.asia