PREVENTIVE MEDICINE
PREVENTIVE MEDICINE POSTING (GMT414)
INTRODUCTION
Preventive medicine is a medical specialty emphasizing knowledge and practices that help individuals and community promote and preserve health and avoid disease and injury. Preventive care sometimes refers to measures taken to prevent diseases and this take place by different level of prevention include primary, secondary and tertiary.
OBJECTIVE
At the end of the posting, students should be able to:
- describe the organization and management of health and medical services in Malaysia particularly at district level
- acquire essential knowledge and skills in preventive medicine in relation to their environment
- describe disease control programmes and their related laws and regulations
- apply principle of bioethics in Public Health
POSTING REQUIREMENT
This posting is a full residential posting. As such, students are required to stay full time in the hospital (in either USM provided hostel or hospital provided accommodation). Any violation of this residential rule will render the respective students as not fulfilling the posting requirement.
LEARNING ACTIVITIES
Lectures
- Introduction to Preventive Medicine
- Health Care System in district setting
- Outbreak investigation
- Ethics in Public Health
- Preparation of Preventive Medicine assignment (Group Discussion)
Briefing By Hospital Director (HD) & Medical Officer of Health (MOH)
Briefing or short lectures by Hospital Director and MOH are scheduled in the morning. The content of the briefing include the organizational structure, functions, activities and strategies for all programs available at the District Hospital or District Health Office.
Ward Round
Students should divide themselves into several groups and do routine ward round with MOs’ in the particular wards. Students should clerk the cases in the ward and get initials.
On Call
Students should divide themselves into several groups and do on call at Emergency Department and labour room. Student should do routine call from 5.00pm till 12.00 midnight during weekdays and from 8.00am till 12.00 midnight during weekends or public holidays.
Procedures
Students should perform and observe the particulars procedure as stated in the logbook.
Activities under District Health Offices
Students should involve in the activities under the district health office including vector borne diseases, program communicable and non–communicable disease, drinking water quality (BAKAS) food and water borne diseases and food safety and quality control program.
Assignment
The students need to do a group assignment on Preventive Medicine.
ETHICS IN PREVENTIVE MEDICINE
BIOETHICS IN PUBLIC HEALTH
Public health ethics is distinct from clinical bioethics because of grater emphasis on the health of populations compared with that of individual patients, on health promotion and disease prevention, and by the need to balance public health against individual liberties. There is renewed awareness of conflict between individual and community rights. Crosscutting central themes in public health ethics involving examples such as:
- Risk communication: roles and responsibilities of public health professionals in disease outbreaks or disaster response:
- Mandatory testing, issues in immunization, government responsibility, universal access to health care etc.
- Values and morals of health intervention in harm reductions
OBJECTIVE
- To understand the principles of ethics in Public Health
- To understand the principles of risk communication and its applications in disease outbreaks or disaster response
Topic of specific interest to Public Health:
- Principles of Ethics in Public Health
- Risk communication in disease outbreak or disaster
The coordinator of Preventive Medicine Posting can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.