9 June 2018

The main congress was preceded by a pre-congress workshop “Masterclass in Adolescent Endocrinology” held on 3 May 2018 attended by 62 participants. Case studies presented by local faculty were interspersed with lectures presented by Professor Dr. Michelle Jack from Australia, Professor Dr. Lee Yung Sing from Singapore and Professor Dr. Muhammad Yazid Jalaludin from UMMC. The workshop had generated extensive discussions and was well attended until late in the afternoon.

Since the inaugural MAC in 2010, the congress has been growing sizably year after year in responding to the ever-increasing demand from the health care professionals as well as the industry for a high quality endocrine meeting that provides valuable insights and updates in the evolving field of endocrinology. MAC 9 has achieved a greater height this year by registering a total of 714 participants including 667 registered delegates, 9 international speakers and 38 local speakers despite the initial challenges revolving around a possible clash with the 14th general election. The two-and-a-half-day program was divided into 3 tracks incorporating 4 plenary lectures, 14 symposia and 15 Meet-the-Expert sessions catering to the primary care physicians, adult and pediatric endocrinologists. There were also sponsored breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner symposia.

The main scientific program as well as the sponsored

symposia were well attended throughout the congress until the last day.

Day 1 of the congress started with a plenary lecture by Professor Dr. Ronald Ma from Hong Kong.

This was followed by the much-awaited launch of the ‘Malaysian Clinical Practice Guidelines on Diabetes in Pregnancy’ by the Y. Bhg. Datuk Dr. Noor Hisham Bin Abdullah, the Director General of the Ministry of Health. The ceremony was kick-started by the surprise arrival of a drone carrying the guideline greeted by a loud applause from the audience. 600 copies of ‘Malaysian Clinical Practice Guidelines on Diabetes in Pregnancy’ were distributed after the launch.

MAC 9 has also received overwhelming support from the industry sponsors. The exhibition booth spaces were quickly snapped up way before the event. There was a total of 25 booths participated by 13 companies that came with innovative themes and designs offering the latest updates in the industry apart from serving aromatic gourmet coffee, premium ice cream and exciting games. The industry professionals enjoyed a pleasant opportunity to meet up with YBhg Datuk Dr. Noor Hisham who visited the industry exhibition after the launch of the CPG.

On day 2 of the congress, the Malaysian Pediatric Endocrine Atlas was also successfully launched by the honorable Professor Dato’ Dr. Khalid Kadir.

Throughout the two and a half days, the delegates were flowing in from track to track attending concurrent symposia and Meet-The-Expert sessions interspersed with plenary lectures given by the esteemed international speakers specialized in their own respective fields. They include Professor Dr. Ken Ho from Australia, Professor Dr. Massimo Terzolo from Italy and Professor Dr. Graham Williams from United Kingdom who were flying the pituitary, adrenal and thyroid flags respectively. The only lament from the delegates were that difficult decisions had to be made often as many interesting topics were held simultaneously!

On the last day of the congress, the exciting program continued with the participation of Dr. Richard Chen and Dr. Manju Chandran from Singapore along with our local faculty to a full audience. This was followed by the last plenary lecture on thyroid cancer by Professor Dr. Graham Williams, a sponsored lunch symposium as well as a lucky draw sponsored by MEMS.

The congress ended with the prize giving ceremony to the winners of the Young Investigator and the Best Poster Awards, followed by official closing by Dr. Zanariah Hussein, President of MEMS. A total of 89 abstracts were accepted for the Congress. The winners for the awards are as follows:

Dr. Nalini M Selveindran (Hospital Putrajaya) – winner of the Young Investigator Award for ‘Response to Bisphosphonate Therapy in Patients with Osteogenesis Imperfecta’

Dr. Lee Yee Lin (Universiti Putra Malaysia) – Best Poster ‘Effect of Growth Hormone on Final Adult Height in Girls with Turner Syndrome’

Dr Nurmaira Bt Hashim (Sabah Women and Children Hospital) – Best Poster ‘Growth Outcome of Patients with Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia: Retrospective Cohort Study in Malaysian Pediatric Endocrine Tertiary Centre’

And last but not least, we would like to express our heart-felt gratitude to all the invited speakers, the delegates, the sponsors as well as MEMS that had contributed to the great success of MAC 9.

Reported by,

Dr. Foo Siew Hui

On behalf of the MAC 9 Organizing Committee

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