The Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya (UM); National Cancer Society of Malaysia (NCSM); City Cancer Challenge (C/Can); and the Selangor State Government (the City Councils of Petaling Jaya, Subang Jaya and Shah Alam) teamed up as the second city in Asia to join the growing movement of cities around the world to plan and deliver locally-led, sustainable cancer care solutions.
The collaboration is based on a shared commitment to work together to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being), SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) and SDG 17 (Partnership for the Goals); and also the global target of reducing premature deaths from non-communicable disease (NCDs) including cancer by 25% by 2025.
Universiti Malaya Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation), Profesor Dr. Noorsaadah Abd Rahman in her speech during the virtual MoU Signing Ceremony said that as Malaysia's oldest university, UM embraces its vision to become an internationally renowned institution of higher learning in research, innovation and teaching.
“Thus, through this MoU, UM focuses on contributing to global health research in response to global and national needs, with a priority on improving health and achieving equity in health for all people worldwide, especially in low and middle-income countries.
“Global health research focuses on understanding systematic factors that shape health and providing evidence for what works. It is also assisting with the development of national cancer control plans to meet their cancer prevention and control targets.
“In 2009, the UM Cancer Research Institute was formed and runs several projects namely REBUNG - Reducing barriers in Cancer Early Diagnosis in the urban B40 Group; and ROSE – a pilot project to assess the acceptability, feasibility and reach of a novel cervical screening strategy that utilized self-sampling in primary care settings, HPV (Human Papillomavirus) testing and follow-up of screened positive women in a tertiary hospital in Malaysia.
“Other than that, the UM Medical Centre Cancer Registry provides point of care cancer registration and backend data transfer to the National Cancer Registry to improve institutional reporting of cancers,” she said.
Other centers in UM contributing to national cancer control plans are the Oral Cancer Research & Coordinating Centre (OCRCC-UM), Centre for Epidemiology and Evidence Based Practice (CEBP), Centre for Population Health (CePH) and UM Centre for Addiction Science Studies (UMCAS).
“These are ‘Interdisciplinary works that impacts the nation’. Researchers must see how their work can link to the government’s strategic plans and policies, and how they can create an impact on the industry and public.
“It’s not just about publishing papers,” Professor Noorsaadah added.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signing ceremony was hosted by the State of Selangor virtually yesterday, 28 June 2021. The MoU signing represents a significant milestone, marking the official launch of the C/Can city process in Greater Petaling. The agreement sets out a framework for cooperation between the signatories to jointly address the gaps in cancer care services in the three cities of Greater Petaling over the next two years.
Also present at the signing ceremony were YAB Dato’ Seri Amirudin Shari, Selangor Chief Minister; YB Dr. Siti Mariah Mahmuh, Chair of City Executive Committee, Greater Petaling; Professor Sanchia Aranda Am, Board Chair of C/Can; Dr Susan Henshall, CEO of C/Can; YDH. TPr. Hajah Noraini binti Haji Roslan, Mayor of the City Council of Subang Jaya; Puan TPr. Hajah Sharipah Marhani Syed Ali, Deputy Mayor of the City Council of Petaling Jaya; and YBhg. Dato’ Haji Zamani Ahmad Mansor, Mayor of the City Council of Shah Alam.
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