SUBSIDY FOR MEMBERS TO PRESENT SCIENTIFIC MEETINGS IN SELECTED REGIONAL MEETINGS

The Executive Committee of the MOA, at its meeting on 1 October 2004, has agreed to provide a subsidy to encourage members to participate and present scientific papers in selected regional meetings. The following guidelines have been drawn up:

ELIGIBILITY
• Ordinary member of the MOA in good standing.
Must have been a member for at least one year
• One allocation per member per financial year
• Priority will be given to first time applicants
(Invited faculty/speakers with partial or full financial support and speakers receiving financial support from universities/institutions are not eligible to apply for the subsidy)

CONDITIONS
• The applicant must apply in advance to the Executive Committee for approval before he/she goes for the conferences.
• The subsidy is for presentation of a scientific paper at scientific meetings in national orthopaedic meetings of ASEAN countries, Hong Kong and Australia held from the month of October 2004 onwards.
• The scientific paper must be accepted for oral presentation (excluding poster / poster with oral presentation)
• The applicant must obtain the agreement of the co-authors that he/she be allowed to present the paper.

SUBSIDY
• An amount of RM 1000.00 will be reimbursed to the successful applicant who will have to submit the original receipt for registration fee and the acceptance letter for the presentation from the organizer.

DECISION
• The Executive Committee of the MOA reserves the right to decide to grant the subsidy.

CIRCLE MEETING ON 5 NOVEMBER 2004
Commentary by Prof Dato' Tunku Sara Ahmad

It was a very stormy night in the middle of Ramadhan (Friday 5 November) when Assoc Prof Abdul Aziz Nather turned up at Academy House just in time for buka puasa. He had just returned that morning from Kota Baru where he was the external examiner for the Part II of the masters in Orthopaedic Surgery (for the Conjoined Board) .

It was testimony to the skill and nerve of the young man assigned to drive him to his destination that he did so on time and unscathed! It was raining heavily and several floods were reported around KL creating massive traffic jams all over town. Miss Kong apparently did not expect him to be able to make it and appeared "as if she had seen a ghost!".

It was not surprising then, that only very few people managed to make it to listen to his talk. The select audience were the past president Dato' Syed Abdul Latiff Alsagoff, Dr Sureshan Sivananthan having newly passed his Part II Masters Examinations) and myself.

We had buka puasa and discussed many subjects informally with him before giving up on any additional listeners and starting the talk at 8.15 pm. We listened to his skillfully woven and delivered talk on "Bone Tissue Engineering: Basic Issues with Cells, Signalling Molecules and Scaffolds" and were very privileged to have all our questions and doubts answered on a very intimate basis. My sympathies go to those members like Dr Tunku Kamarul who were stuck in a jam for at least two hours without any provisions in the car during buka puasa and could not make it.

The evening ended on a final dramatic note when we all tried to make our way back and send Prof Aziz back to his hotel only to find the road blocked by a fallen tree!

~~~~~

CONGRATULATIONS

The following doctors passed their Part II Masters examination in Orthopaedic Surgery held during the fasting month in USM, Kota Bharu, Kelantan. This was a conjoint examination and the external examiner was Assoc Prof Abdul Aziz Nather from Singapore. We would like to congratulate them, welcome them to the Orthopaedic Community and wish them well in their future careers. May they be a comfort to patients and a credit to us all.

Dr Supparamaniam Narayanan (USM)
Dr Noor Fadzilah Azizi (UKM)
Dr Sureshan Sivananthan (UM)
Dr Yeong Yew Kwan (UKM)
Dr Nor Ashikin Johari (UKM)

~~~~~

DEATH ANNOUNCEMENT

We have received the sad news from the Philippine Orthopaedic Association on the sudden demise of Dr Samuel Reyes, the AOA Senior Travelling Fellow 2003, on 14 October 2004. Our deepest condolences to the POA and Dr Reyes' family.