Commemorating the 75th Anniversary, the UGM Faculty of Medicine, Public Health, and Nursing held an online Open Senate Meeting on Friday (5/3). One of the guests to deliver the speech was the Indonesian Minister of State Secretariat, Prof. Pratikno.
Industry 4.0 and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, he said, prompted a movement to keep improving medical schools to get better. Several ways, such as enhancing information systems, increasing human resource capacity, evaluating performance, and structuring models and work plans, were among the efforts to face these double disruptions. Synergies across disciplines also took part in the development of learning and research content. According to him, mono-discipline was out of date, and those with hybrid skills were highly in demand nowadays.
“Health workers must be highly competent and possess essential skills like communication, ethics, management, integrity, collaboration, and ‘true learner’ quality,” he said.
Dean of the Faculty Prof. Ova Emilia reported the Faculty’s latest adaptations, innovations, and achievements. As one of the best medical schools in Indonesia, the UGM Faculty of Medicine, Public Health and Nursing had always committed to producing numerous innovations to contribute to the country. For instance, to respond to the pandemic, numerous Faculty researchers, in collaboration with others from cross-disciplines, had successfully produced the likes of GeNose, RI-GHA, Venindo, Gama Swab Chamber, Disinfection Booths, Screening and Surveillance, and Genome Sequencing.
“These innovations involve integrated cross-disciplinary studies and collaborations with hospitals in the AHS network and industry. Along with the Veterinary Laboratory, we can also form Genetic Working Groups to carry out SARS-CoV-2 Whole Genome Sequencing, allowing us to get a mandate from the Ministry of Health to support genomic surveillance in Yogyakarta and southern Central Java,” she explained.
Adding to the list, the Faculty’s World Mosquito Program with Monash University, the Tahija Foundation, and the Yogyakarta Government had also invented the Wolbachia-Aedes-aegypti mosquito for dengue elimination, receiving both national and international awards. The increasing number of patents and copyrights (9 patents and 145 copyrights) was also evidence of how productive the Faculty was amid the pandemic.
In education, the Faculty focused on improving the quality of graduates. The expected outcome included being innovative, adaptive, have good character, and can be the agent of change in the health sector. A wide range of programs, such as summer, winter, and elective courses, was available for students to experience interdisciplinary learning and interprofessional collaboration. The use of technology to adapt to the pandemic through various platforms for asynchronous and synchronous lectures also took place.
The Faculty took concrete steps of providing community services by forming the COVID-19 task force and establishing Health Promoting University. It also managed several health communication channels for people to gather information, such as INA-Health, Knowledge Channels, and Radio Indonesia Sehat or RAISA.
Ova acknowledged that the quality of human resources, finance, and infrastructure reflected the Faculty’s overall quality. Thus, numerous roadshow programs, promotions, study assistance, training programs were available for the academics. Establishing a smart digital campus and high-tech educational infrastructure was among the Faculty’s efforts to construct a more conducive and innovative academic environment.
Furthermore, the 75th-anniversary commemoration marked the launching of two monumental books by the Faculty, namely the 2016-2020 Dean’s Report and a book called Merawat Keutamaan Demi Kesehatan Bermartabat (literal translation: Caring for Virtue for Dignified Health). The 2016-2020 Dean’s Report contains the Faculty’s achievements for the past five years, while Merawat Keutamaan Demi Kesehatan Bermartabat summarizes the stories across generations of the Faculty’s academics in actualizing UGM values when carrying out the three pillars of higher education or tri dharma.
Author: Agung Nugroho
Photo: Firsto