Message from the Dean

Dean’s Message

Medicine, as a profession, has attracted the brightest and most able students. Why is this so? Medicine is a demanding profession. The course is long and arduous, and whatever discipline one chooses, further years of post-graduate study will be necessary. Not only that, but because of the rapid advances in the biological sciences, current medical knowledge becomes obsolete in less than ten years, forcing the medical graduate to remain a student all his professional life.

Nevertheless, places in medical schools continue to be eagerly sought after. The reason is, I believe, that the practice of medicine brings a degree of job satisfaction and sheer enjoyment unrivalled in any other profession.

The constantly expanding store of medical knowledge has led to profound changes in the undergraduate curriculum. The emphasis now is not so much on facts, as the synthesis and analysis of facts, and the thorough understanding of basic principles, so that the graduate is armed with the ability and the means to pursue self-education.

Medicine, too, is about attitudes. Respect for our fellow human beings, the desire to help others, and a willingness, not infrequently to sacrifice our comfort in doing so, are essential qualities in a good doctor. These views on medical education reflect the philosophy of Penang Medical College and the Vision Statement of the Ministry of Health.

The advantages of the PMC arrangement are that the student spends less time abroad and pursue their clinical studies in the environment in which they will subsequently practise, becoming familiar with the spectrum of diseases which they will subsequently treat.

On behalf of the PMC , I would like to extend a warm welcome to the Student’s who are joining PMC after 2 1/2 years of Pre-Clinical Study in Dublin, Ireland.

I wish them success in their medical studies.

Professor Amir S.Khir
Dean and Foundation Professor of Medicine
Consultant Endocrinologist
PMC Medical Faculty