News

On the 17th of December 2022, the Kulliyyah of Pharmacy has organised a workshop on Quality Use of Medicine (QUM) for Komuniti Intervensi Dadah (KOMITED) Malaysia at the Auditorium, Kulliyyah of Pharmacy. The workshop aimed to train KOMITED staff on the developed QUM modules and health monitoring techniques and to strengthen the community engagement activities between IIUM and KOMITED Malaysia via knowledge transfer programmes towards empowering marginalized community to improve health literacy and societal wellbeing. Quality use of medicine is one of the core components of the National Medicines Policy, Ministry of Health Malaysia since 2012. Therefore, it is important to ensure the implementation is successfully materialized at the grassroot level. Pertubuhan KOMITED Malaysia is currently handling patients of all ages with clinical needs to deal with their medications on daily basis.

A total of 43 participants attended the workshop, and the training was led by Dr. Nor Hidayah Mohd Taufek, Dr. Nor Ilyani Mohamed Nazar and Dr. Norny Syafinaz Ab Rahman. The one-day workshop has benefitted participants where active discussion about medication use including its side effects, non-compliance and storage have been conducted. The workshop also provided hands-on experience on using health monitoring devices including for measuring cholesterol, blood sugar, carbon monoxide and blood pressure. The Substance Use Disorders Research Group (SUDRG) has prepared 20 hardcopies of Medicines Reference Book or module for KOMITED facilities, addressing medications and health screening at KOMITED and trained the staff about using the module. The outcome of the workshop includes improved knowledge and skills of KOMITED staff to document quality use of medicines and health monitoring activities for future data analysis towards improving quality of life.

This workshop was funded under the Knowledge Transfer Programme-Research Initiative Grant Scheme 2021 by SUDRG and Sustainable Reimbursement Drug Policy Flagship, Kulliyyah of Pharmacy IIUM.