The Department of Social & Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya is delighted to co-organize the 12th APRU Global Health Conference, 28-30 October 2018, with the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU) Global Health Program. The conference theme was “Planetary Health the next frontier” and it was held at the Research Management and Innovation Centre, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

A total of 306 participants attended the conference from more than 70 institutions and 20 economies of the Asia Pacific Rim; including Australia, Bangladesh, China, Ethiopia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Rwanda, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, United States of America and Yemen.

The conference began with a one-day networking field trip (pre-conference) around Kuala Lumpur on 28 October 2018, attended by 70 participants. The conference started on the 29th of October with welcome speeches by the APRU Director (policy and programs), Ms Christina Schönleber and the Vice Chancellor of the University of Malaya, Datuk Ir. (Dr) Abdul Rahim Rashim. A keynote address on “Planetary Health: Protecting and Promoting Health in the Anthropocene Epoch” was delivered by Professor Anthony Capon from the University of Sidney. This was followed by a plenary on “Managing the Health Risk of a Changing Climate” by Professor Kristie Ebi, University of Washington. Associate Professor Dr Mellissa Withers from the University of Southern California who is also the program director of APRU global health program provided the updates of the APRU Global Health Program.

This conference had 3 special panels: “Global Health in the Era of the 4th Industrial Revolution“, “Human Rights and Planetary Health”, and: Two emerging Global Health challenges: climate change and mental disorders”. There were 88 oral and 76 posters (with 30 posters from students) presentations at the conference. There were also 6 concurrent working group meetings on Global Health Education and Technology, Non-communicable Diseases, Environmental Health, Mental Health, Bioethics and Kuala Lumpur Declaration.

The Virtual Case Competition attracted many entries. The 4 finalist teams were University of Malaya, University Gadjah Mada, Our Lady of Fatima University, and the University of Southern California. The students from the University of Southern California emerged as the winner of this competition.

Professor Datuk Anuar Zaini (Monash University) launched The Malaysian Global Health Consortium on Day 2 of the conference. The MGHC is hosted by the United Nations University – International Institute for Global Health (UNU-IIGH). It is a network aiming to bring together policy makers and researchers to collaborate and contribute to improving global health challenges through training, development of knowledge products, research, service and advocacy.

The programmme book and abstract book is available from the link.

We would like to thank everyone, including our student volunteers, who have contributed to this conference. All of them had worked so hard and diligently to make this conference a success. The 13th APRU Global Health Conference will be hosted by the University of Hong Kong. Looking forward to meeting you again in Hong Kong from 17-20 November 2018.

“Heal the world, Make it a better place” Michael Jackson.

Prepared by: Professor Sanjay Rampal (Chairperson) & Associate Professor Moy Foong Ming (Secretariat), Organizing committee, The 12th APRU Global Health Conference, University of Malaya