The Universiti Malaya and Queen’s University, Belfast jointly launched the Centre for Population Health (CePH) at the Chancellory Building on 18 February 2009 in UM. The new centre will be housed in the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine and represents the efforts of the SPM Dept and Centre for Public Health in Queen’s. Present at the launch were UM’s VC, Professor Datuk Ghauth Jasmon, Queen’s University Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Gregson, Faculty of Medicine Dean Professor Ikram Shah Ismail and SPM Dept Head Professor Awang Bulgiba. The launch initiative was endorsed by the Deputy Minister for Higher Education Datuk Haji Idris Haron and Northern Ireland Minister of Employment and Learning.

Welcoming the establishment of the new Centre, the University of Malaya Vice Chancellor, Ghauth Jasmon said: “This is an important development for the University of Malaya and the country of Malaysia. It is a practical demonstration of how our leading-edge research complemented by the University’s partnership with Queen’s University Belfast can create a real benefit, in this instance health improvement to the population of Malaysia.”
The centre (CePH) will help Malaysia to have a modern medical database of its people and provides population health solutions in the future. In today’s challenging world, research and databases are critical in anticipating future health problems. Among the initial core functions of the centre would be conducting courses in developing capacity followed by research into the complex relationship between diet, living conditions, environment and health in deprived and disadvantaged communities and providing assistance for the national cancer registry.
Queen’s University is a member of the prestigious Russell Group of top 20 research-intensive universities in the United Kingdom.

Founded in 1845, Queen’s has more than 17,000 students from over 80 countries and 100,000 graduates worldwide. It is envisaged that UM’s collaboration with Queen’s will allow the development of both universities internationally.

The new centre will be the second research centre in SPM, the other centre being the Centre for Clinical Epidemiology and Evidence-Based Medicine (Julius Centre). The Centre for Population Health will be spearheaded by Dr Nabilla Abdul Mohsein Al-Sadat together with an enthusiastic team from the department.

The following will be the management team of the newly established centre:

Head: Dr Nabilla Abdul Mohsein

Deputy (Resources): Dr Maznah Dahlui

Deputy (Research): Dr Tin Tin Su

Liaison Officer (Epid): Dr Moy Foong Ming

Liaison Officer (Registry): Dr Claire Choo Wan Yuen

Manager: Norizan Moez