| Azaraimy HH |
CHAIR professor Dr David Koh Soo Quee, the Assistant Vice Chancellor (Research and Innovation) of Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD), was recently conferred the 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award by the College of Public Health and Occupational Physicians (CPHOP), Academy of Medicine, Singapore, for his significant contributions to the practice and advancement of occupational medicine in Singapore and abroad.
The award is conferred to outstanding public health or occupational medicine specialists who have made major contributions to the practice in Singapore, while also serving as role models to the fraternity of practitioners.
Professor Koh was also recognised for his various leadership roles in undergraduate and postgraduate medical education in Singapore and regionally, among many other achievements.
In an interview with the Weekend Bulletin, Professor Koh said that the award was especially meaningful to him, since it was awarded by the College of Public Health and Occupational Physicians and the Academy of Medicine.
“I view this award as the ultimate form of recognition from my professional peers and colleagues. However, I must stress that this award is not for my personal efforts alone, but is also for the work of many other people whom I had the pleasure to work with” he said.
When asked how this reflects upon his work at the UBD, Professor Koh said, “A significant part of my work has been in Brunei Darussalam, where I have worked for almost six years.
This work was not only done with UBD, but also with Brunei Shell Petroleum Co Sdn Bhd (BSP), government ministries and hospitals and the local community. The award will spur my efforts to work with these important partners to improve public health and occupational health in Brunei, the Asean region and beyond.”
As a recognised expert in occupational health and medicine, he also talked about current health concerns in the workplace, saying, “Right now, there is still much unnecessary suffering and deaths among the three billion workers in the world, which are caused by hazardous work exposure.
“It is sobering to reflect that throughout the world, over 6,000 people die from work-related accidents or diseases every day. The majority, close to 90 per cent of these deaths, is due to occupational and work-related diseases. These include cancers, cardiovascular disease, infectious diseases and so on. Even death from overwork is now an officially recognised entity, and has been made compensable in some Asian countries.”
Professor Koh also attributed a third of back pain (37 per cent), one in seven cases of hearing loss (16 per cent), 10 per cent or more of Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (13 per cent), asthma (11 per cent) and lung cancer (10 per cent) as being work-related. In addition, he said, a significant proportion of poor mental health and cardiovascular diseases are caused by work.
“Much more can and must be done, to alleviate and to prevent this suffering,” he said.
“We need to prioritise occupational health and safety, allocate adequate resources, along with greater multi-sectoral collaboration and integration. At the same time, we need to incorporate and strengthen occupational health policy, practice and research to respond to these pressing issues.
“Here at UBD, there has been research conducted on the health of several occupational groups, including those in the healthcare and education sectors, and workers in small and medium scale industries.”
“Among the research projects conducted at UBD”, he said, is an intervention to promote mental health among groups, such as tertiary level students.
“The intervention has been shown to be effective. Another feature of the research was the use of novel methods to assess mental health. This included the use of standardised mental health questionnaires, as well the objective measurements of biomarkers such as stress hormones in saliva.”
The project has received the support of the Brunei Research Council, with the findings disseminated both locally and internationally. According to Professor Koh, there has been significant capacity-building locally in terms of research, as a result of this work.
Professor Koh is also the writer of the fourth edition of the Textbook of Occupational Medicine Practice, which was co-authored with Professor Tar-Ching Aw, an Eminent Visiting Professor at UBD.
The book is used in Asia, the Middle East and also by students taking the membership of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, in occupational medicine exams. It has been translated into Korean and abridged versions are also available in Vietnamese and Thai.
When asked to elaborate, he said, “It’s a textbook which discusses the principles and practice of occupational medicine. It provides a link between occupational health and clinical practise, and covers target organ systems that can be affected by hazardous exposures in workplaces.” He said that the book focusses on clinical presentations, investiga-tions and the management of affected individuals, with the main emphasis on the prevention of disease and early detection of health effects.
“All of the authors either have clinical or academic experience in occupational medicine practice,” he said.
“The book is used in several countries in the Asia-Pacific, Middle East and by doctors preparing for international examinations in occupational medicine. The latest version, which will be out shortly, is the fourth edition.
“The book will be of interest to medical practitioners, especially those in primary care and doctors intending to pursue a career in occupational medicine. It would also be relevant for non-medical health and safety professionals wanting to know more about health effects resulting from occupational exposures.
“The book is targeted at all those who are interested in the interaction between work and health, and how occupational diseases and work-related disorders may present — in other words, for all who have committed themselves to do the best practice for the health of working people.”
Professor Koh, who has worked at UBD since 2012, also founded the Global Classroom in Public Health linking UBD with other reputable universities and providing an international perspective in the field.
When asked about the Global Classroom, he said, “Since 2012, UBD has participated in an annual global classroom on ‘International Perspectives of Environmental and Occupational Health Issues’.
Other universities in this global classroom include leading academic institutions in the Asia-Pacific region such as the National Taiwan University (NTU), University of Occupational and Environmental Health (UOEH) of Japan, National University of Singapore (NUS), Seoul National University (SNU), United Nations University of Malaysia and Khon Kaen University (KKU) of Thailand.
“At the opening of last year’s class on September 13 2016, the President of UOEH Japan, Professor T Higashi (who had previously lectured on this programme), provided the opening remarks. The introduction to the course was given by Professor Leon Guo of National Taiwan University, and the first lecture of that course, titled ‘Assessment of Exposures’ was delivered by Distinguished Chair Professor Dr David Koh of Universiti Brunei Darussalam.
The next global classroom for this module will commence in September 2017.”
Since the inception of the global classroom series, a total of 45 professors from over 10 countries and 443 students have participated in the class.
The students are from Australia, Bangladesh, Belize, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesian, India, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kosovo, Liberia, Macedonia, Malaysia, Malawi, Maldives, Moldova, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nigeria, Palau, The Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Taiwan, Tanzania, and USA.
Visiting heads of state have also observed and participated in the global classroom at UBD.
According to Professor Koh, “The global classroom approach has been expanded at UBD to incorporate joint teaching sessions on other subjects, such as nursing and midwifery, with other regional universities.”
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