President’s Message May 2017 – Dato’ Dr Selvalingam S
The Malaysian Urological Association (MUA) was formed in 1974 by the late Datuk Dr G. Sreenevasan and a handful of pioneer urologists. Since then we have grown to be a recognized sub-speciality in Malaysia. Although we are a society of only 110 members in 2017, we have evolved to become a strong association and our strength is in the unity that we have between urologists from Ministry of Health, Universities and the Private Sector.
It is with this unity that the Board of Urology was established in 2000. With the intent to focus on training of Urologist in Malaysia. Qualified General Surgeons were enrolled to undergo a 4 year training programme under the Board of Urology, Malaysia. And then came a milestone with the introduction of The Royal College of Surgeons of Glasgow examination in 2008. Since then 42 urology trainees have been conferred FRCSG (Urol) on completion of the final examination. This year we achieved another milestone in training with the introduction of the parallel training programme ( a programme conducted with Ministry of Health, Malaysia) to open up urology training to senior medical officers who have fulfilled the necessary entry requirements. This is to overcome the current shortage of Urologist in Malaysia while maintaining the quality of training.
Apart from training, MUA is also committed to engaging with the community, with the introduction of the Blue Cap Movement in 2015 and establishment of the Prostate Cancer Society Malaysia in 2016. The first Relay Run for Prostate Cancer was successfully conducted in November 2015 and it has now become an annual event with participation by many cancer survivors, care givers and public.
MUA also strongly believes in networking with Urology associations across the globe. We continue to have a strong collaboration with the Royal College of Surgeons of Glasgow in the training of Malaysian Urologist. We have a strong bond with USANZ as many of our trainees undergo fellowship positions in Australia. We are an active partner in FAUA (Southeast Asian Urology Federation), SIU and UAA. Malaysia will be hosting the Urology Association of Asia Congress in the famous Kuala Lumpur Convention Center in August 2019. We are also one of the member countries to adopt the EAU guidelines in our practice.
We believe strongly in creating young leaders and the Malaysian Young Urologist Chapter (YOUTH) was formed in 2017 as a subcommittee of MUA, with the aim of improving research activities and urology services with the greater involvement of young urologist in the various urological subspeciality areas ranging from Endourology, Laparoscopy , Robotics, Reconstructive, Oncology, Pediatrics to Transplant surgery.
With the expansion of our website and the introduction of a facebook page for MUA we hope to improve connectivity between urologist in Malaysia, our other partners in the medical field inside and outside Malaysia, General Practitioners and the Community.
Dato’ Dr Selvalingam S
President 2017-2019
Malaysian Urological Association