Our Scholars

I am a pharmacist, and currently a doctoral student at the University of Malaya. My main research interest is in infectious diseases and osteoporosis. I completed my master’s thesis on a topic regarding antiretroviral therapy for HIV patients. For my doctoral training at University of Malaya, I have moved into the fields of osteoporosis and geriatric health by working on implementation of a Fracture Liaison Service in the University Malaya Medical Center, under the mentorship of Dr. Terence Ong. Dr. Terence is a consultant geriatrician and had multiple publications in the field of musculoskeletal health. Under his guidance, we successfully implemented the Fracture Liaison Service and presented several poster presentations at both national and international conferences. My doctoral research was put on halt for a short period of time in June 2021 due to COVID outbreak, I decided to use the...

My 13 years of work experience at the Ministry of Health Malaysia has uncovered my passion for public health as I gained vast experiences in different public healthcare facilities such as state hospital, community health clinic, district health office and specialist hospital. In 2014, I was fortunate to be able to pursue a postgraduate Master’s degree in community health at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia under the Federal Training Award by Ministry of Health Malaysia. For my Master’s degree, I conducted a research study looking into patient satisfaction towards pharmacy services in public health clinics which shed light on ways to improve pharmacy services to better serve the local communities. The last three years of assessing various health technologies at the Malaysian Health Technology Assessment Section taught me the importance of bridging the evidence-to-practice gap which led me to pursue a...

Grazele is an experienced researcher with an academic background in research ethics and work involving human rights and marginalized populations. She holds a Bachelor of Food Science and Nutrition degree from Universiti Malaysia Sabah and graduated amongst the first cohort of the Master of Health Research Ethics (MOHRE) program, a collaborative initiative between the Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya and Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics. She was previously a research officer and study coordinator in Queen Elizabeth Hospital II-Clinical Research Centre. Presently, she is an Assistant Secretary in University of Malaya Medical Centre-Medical Research Ethics Committee and is also a doctorate candidate with the Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya. She has also been very active in civil society works specifically on gender and equality issues. Using the skills and...

Mona has a total of 20 years’ experience in public health and international development. She is an experienced public health consultant and have provided a wide range of technical assistance to civil society organizations, national governments, development agencies and international funders in Asia, Africa, Central Asia, Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Northern Africa. Her work encompasses key populations interventions, community system strengthening, gender, human rights, institutional development, and national grant implementation management. At present, she is the Senior Officer to the Special Advisor to the Prime Minister on Law and Human Rights (Malaysia). She holds a MSc (Public Health) from University Malaya and a Bachelors’ Degree of Commerce in Accountancy from the University of Canberra, Australia. Mona is a PhD candidate with the Faculty of Medicine, University...

Dr. Nur Afiqah's research work examines institutional-related structures associated with engagement in HIV among people who use illicit drugs (PWUD). This epidemiological work is informed by sociological perspectives which framed the research questions within a wider social, economic and policy environment. As such, her doctoral research project applied institutional perspectives from a sociological view to explore the extent to which individual and organizational interactions are aligned in achieving a patient-centred care approach, specifically to facilitate improvements in HIV care outcomes among PWUD.Her current research activities have incorporated a community-based participatory research (CBPR) component. Using this approach, she engages with local communities of PWUD and NGOs that serve these populations, whose collective views in the design and implementation of health...

Dr Rafdzah Ahmad Zaki is an Associate Professor in Epidemiology in the Department of Social & Preventive Medicine, University of Malaya. Currently, she heads the Centre for Epidemiology and Evidence-based Practice (CEBP) at the University of Malaya. She also chairs the TB Monitoring & Prevention Committee and is a member of the COVID-19 taskforce team at UMMC. She had received training in Evidence-Based Medicine from the University of Oxford and formal exposure in Clinical Epidemiology from the University Medical Centre Utrecht, Netherland. She also attended a workshop on Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Disease at Imperial College, London to deepen her skill in mathematical modelling. She received an award from the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Disease for observership at the European CDC and learned about the surveillance system...

Dr. Nur Afiqah's research work examines institutional-related structures associated with engagement in HIV among people who use illicit drugs (PWUD). This epidemiological work is informed by sociological perspectives which framed the research questions within a wider social, economic and policy environment. As such, her doctoral research project applied institutional perspectives from a sociological view to explore the extent to which individual and organizational interactions are aligned in achieving a patient-centred care approach, specifically to facilitate improvements in HIV care outcomes among PWUD.Her current research activities have incorporated a community-based participatory research (CBPR) component. Using this approach, she engages with local communities of PWUD and NGOs that serve these populations, whose collective views in the design and implementation of health...

Dr Rafdzah Ahmad Zaki is an Associate Professor in Epidemiology in the Department of Social & Preventive Medicine, University of Malaya. Currently, she heads the Centre for Epidemiology and Evidence-based Practice (CEBP) at the University of Malaya. She also chairs the TB Monitoring & Prevention Committee and is a member of the COVID-19 taskforce team at UMMC. She had received training in Evidence-Based Medicine from the University of Oxford and formal exposure in Clinical Epidemiology from the University Medical Centre Utrecht, Netherland. She also attended a workshop on Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Disease at Imperial College, London to deepen her skill in mathematical modelling. She received an award from the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Disease for observership at the European CDC and learned about the surveillance system...