About

The Department of Social and Preventive Medicine (SPM) is the first academic public health department in Malaysia, established in 1964. It has been the premier academic destination for public health professionals and academics over the past half a century. Over time, we have consistently increased our academic course offerings, staffing, and student intake. The SPM department first started offering the Master of Public Health (MPH) programme in 1973. Since then, the department has further offered various Master by Speciality programmes in core disciplines of Public Health, as well as the Master of Medical Science in Public Health (MMedScPH) programme (History of Public Health Education in Malaysia). The dynamism of the department under previous headships has led to the Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) programme. In 2022, we started offering the Master of Epidemiology programme.

In 2020, the world was confronted by a once-in-a-century event, the COVID-19 pandemic. Everyone anticipated the pandemic; however, no one could have predicted the breadth and depth of its impact on all of us in such a short time. Before the pandemic, the world of medicine had focused on its great technological achievements, and it seemed invincible. The pandemic has taught us that even a country with the most advanced medical care crumbles under the sheer reach and speed of its spread. Countries with successful vaccination programmes are also seeing a resurgence of infections due to the new variant. The pandemic only strengthens the importance of Public Health for everyone and in everything we do.

When comparing countries’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, it becomes clear that those with a better handle on the pandemic are those with better public health policy and infrastructure. It also highlights that having immense knowledge of Public Health Sciences is not enough. For successful prevention and control of a pandemic, a country also needs political will and politicians who understand the importance of public health measures on top of appropriate public health infrastructure and public health expertise.

Participation during the COVID-19 Pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, our academics and students have been actively engaging in advocacy work through participation in the following COVID-19 task forces and committees as chairpersons, heads, expert panel members, leads, consultants, and members:

1. Independent COVID-19 Vaccination Advisory Committee
2. CEASe – COVID-19 Epidemiological Analysis and Strategic Task Force
3. Greater Klang Valley Special Task Force
4. Sarawak Infectious Disease Centre Technical Committee
5. Academy of Science Malaysia (ASM) Special Interest Group (COVID-19)
6. UMMC COVID-19 Task Force
7. UM Post-COVID Recovery Efforts – Health Recovery Group
8. COVID-19 Evidence Retrieval Services (CERS), Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya
9. Committee for UMMC Special Vaccination Centre
10. UMMC Outreach Programme
11. COVID-19 Long-term Effects And Recovery (CLEAR) Study
12. COVID-19 Vaccine for MOSTI
13. Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Covid-19 Advisory Expert Group
14. International Teleconference on Technology and Policy for Supporting Implementation of COVID-19 Response and Recovery Plan in Southeast Asia (ITTP-COVID19), ASEAN University Network
15. Science and Technology Expert Panel for Disaster Risk Reduction, Emerging Health Threats, National Disaster Management Agency
16. Buka Sekolah Kami NGO
17. Malaysian Health Consortium
18. UMMC Ventilation Improvement Committee

The staff of the department have also engaged the public and communities by publishing many articles in newspapers and online news portals and providing comments and opinions for local and international newspapers and television networks. The Department has also developed the COVID-19 Epidemiology for Malaysia Dashboard.

Public Health Department in UMMC

The department’s staff also contribute to services at the UMMC through the Public Health Department. The head of the SPM department leads the Public Health Department (PHD). It is divided into a secretariat and clinical services, which are further divided into public health services and Occupational Safety, Health and Environmental (OSHE) services, which include the Occupational Health Clinic. During the pandemic, the PHD and OSHE were involved in preventing the intra-hospital transmission of COVID-19. The activities include contact tracing and risk assessment, healthcare worker surveillance, return-to-work assessment, and outbreak investigation.

50 Years of Public Health Graduates

Multi-Disciplinary Expertise Team

The strengths of the SPM Department lie in her multidisciplinary expertise pooled from our academics, the appointment of visiting professors from renowned universities, and the regular audit exercises on her curriculum by assessors from established universities in Australia and European countries.

The faculty members have been recognised on the prestigious Stanford University’s Top 2% Scientists in the World list for the last six years. Being included in the top 2% of scientists worldwide is a testament to the exceptional research contributions and impact of our faculty members. This recognition reflects their dedication to advancing knowledge in their respective fields and their significant influence on the global scientific community.

International Accreditation

We ensure the relevance of our curriculum and quality of our teaching by joining the National Conjoint Committee of Public Health programme at the national level, the Asia-Pacific Academic Consortium for Public Health (APACPH), and ASEAN University Network (AUN) accreditations at the international level, besides meeting the standards as specified by the Malaysian Qualifying Agency (MQA) on our programme.

Public Health Research Centres

The department has been and continues to be the hub for quality public health research in Malaysia, with the establishment of two research centres. The Centre for Epidemiology and Evidence-based Practice (CEBP) has successfully pioneered clinical epidemiology and evidence-based medicine (EBM) in Malaysia and is a centre of excellence for clinical research. The Centre for Population Health (CePH) conducts many community intervention projects and actively contributes to our local communities. Our research publications have grown exponentially since 2005, when we began conducting clinical epidemiology and evidence-based research. Part of the success was our collaboration with the University Medical Centre, Utrecht, the Netherlands, and Queen’s University, Belfast, in the United Kingdom.

CEBP and CePH have done exceptionally well in 2022 and were among the top 10 science and technology centres of research at the Universiti Malaya. Both centres have come a long way since their establishment more than 10 years ago. Together with the Centre for Excellence for Research in AiDS (CERIA) they are the top three centres of research in the Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya.

The number of students in recent years has been overwhelming, especially for the Master of Medical Science and PhD in various public health disciplines. We have had to limit our acceptance to only those with the highest potential. The public health relevance, scope, and quality of our graduates have been complimented by many local and international universities.

We are a team that aspires for transparency and togetherness akin to a family. This team spirit has been essential in organising various faculty and university events and international-level conferences. We are well supported by the higher management at the faculty and at the university level and sincerely thank them for their support in our pursuit of education and research excellence.