The University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia hosted the APACPH-KL Early Career Global Public Health Conference: Implementation Science for Improving Population Health on the 11th and 12th of April recently. The two-day conference was officiated earlier today by APACPH-KL President Yang Berbahagia Datuk Professor Awang Bulgiba Awang Mahmud. The conference gathered experts and researchers in public health for an exchange and expansion of knowledge and to share experiences on early career researchers can tackle public health issues, which are sometimes borderless.
Organized by Asia-Pacific Academic Consortium for Public Health Kuala Lumpur (APACPH-KL), in collaboration with the Centre for Population Health (CePH), and the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine (SPM), Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya; the conference aimed to leverage on the global public health education and research of Asia-Pacific universities to address global public health issues through interaction with public policy and media. It also hoped to develop and enhance the network amongst international fellow students and early career public health researchers.
Yang Berbahagia Datuk Professor Awang Bulgiba Awang Mahmud, in his opening remarks reflected on his own experiences as an early career public health researcher more than 25 years ago. He stressed on the need for young public health researchers to strengthen their networks and to have good mentors to guide them in their careers. He called on these early career researchers to seek out solutions to public health problems and use implementation science to help them achieve their aims of making populations healthier.
In her welcoming speech, Professor Dr Maznah Dahlui, the Chair of APACPH-KL Early Career Global Public Health Conference 2019, shared that every one of us should aspire to live in healthy conditions and to have access to quality healthcare. “Spending on health should not be seen as a cost, but rather as a long-term investment. Health is a prerequisite for economic development. A population in good health represents a strong workforce that can drive a country’s productivity and growth”, she added.
Prof. Maznah explained as how the population in our region evolves, so do the challenges we face. Public health has to evolve to stay relevant to the population it serves and to produce more cost efficient health interventions for posterity. However, as society evolves, so do the challenges to health. Public health needs to continue to evolve to ensure the health of future populations, millions at a time.
The conference offered an excellent platform for early career public health professionals and students to exchange ideas and network with regional public health thought leaders and researchers. The organisers succeeded in bringing people from the industry, academia, NGOs and international organisations to make presentations and have interactive discussions. Participants made oral presentations on Health Systems and Policy, Epidemiology, Occupational and Environmental Health as well as Behavioural and Reproductive Health. They will also have the opportunity to submit articles which will be published in a special issue of a SCOPUS-indexed journal.
This conference hopes to build up the confidence of early career public health professionals and postgraduate students in presenting and publishing articles in well-regarded peer-reviewed journals. It was also the perfect opportunity for them to network and interact with one another. APACPH-KL and the University of Malaya look forward to more of such activities being conducted in the near future.
About Asia-Pacific Academic Consortium for Public Health (APACPH):
APACPH is an international non-profit organization first registered in Honolulu, the USA in 1984. There are currently 95 registered members. Its vision is to achieve the highest possible level of health of all the peoples of the Asia-Pacific
region.
APACPH, as an independent multinational non-governmental organisation, seeks to understand global public health levels across Asia-Pacific region from the research, education and policy perspectives. The Consortium encourages dialogues among researchers, officials, healthcare organisations, experts in health and education, industry players, as well as the media, in a bid to develop better interventions in health education and services. APACPH promotes public health as an efficient way to improve healthcare quality, thereby reduce health disparities between communities, groups, and nations.
Contact APACPH Secretariat: Tel +603 7967 4756 | contact@apacph.org | http://www.apacph.org
