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A Week with Professor Hilary Pinnock

By Hani Salim on behalf of the Department of Family Medicine, UPM

The Department of Family Medicine and the Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia had welcomed Professor Hilary Pinnock, an Honorary Visiting Professor from the University of Edinburgh between 17-20 September 2019. Professor Pinnock is a Professor of Primary Care Respiratory Medicine at Asthma UK Centre for applied research (AUKCR) and NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Respiratory Health (RESPIRE). Professor Hilary has been appointed as the Honorary Visiting Professor by University Putra Malaysia (UPM) on July 2019.

We had several engaging activities with Professor Pinnock, including a talk on the translational gap in research at the new Teaching Hospital UPM. The talk was attended by the members of the hospital including the Director, Associate Professor Dr Muhammad bin Mohd Isa. We had the chance to meet other key members of the faculty including the Dean, Professor Zamberi Sekawi and the deputy deans.
Professor Pinnock also sat in a session with the members of the Department of Family Medicine discussing the research work being done by the department members, especially the early career researcher and we discussed potential collaborations (and potential PhD!). Isn’t that wonderful?

Next, we had a one-day workshop led by Professor Pinnock on ‘Patients as partners in their care’ and ‘Implementing supported self-management’ which was attended by 40 participants. The attendees were family physicians from various universities and healthcare clinics from the Ministry of Health and family medicine trainees. Several exciting presentations took place on how supported self-management can be implemented in chronic conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, obesity and opioid-addiction in various clinical settings. The highlight of the day, I would say, a sharing session by a participant, Puan Hamidah Jalaludin, on her experience living with asthma. She also talked about how she benefited from engagement in health research such as RESPIRE, which Professor Pinnock is one of the program lead in Malaysia.

Professor Pinnock wrapped up the week with a sharing session on GP training in the UK and how she balanced her life; family, clinical work and academia. Professor Pinnock took us on her journey through all the different phases of life (we enjoyed some of her personal photos including the day she rode the train to Leeds to fulfil her dream of becoming a doctor!) which I am sure, many of the audiences can relate to albeit different in context. We had a presentation on the experience in patient-oriented shared decision making research by our very own, Professor Lee Ping Yein. Many of the attendees were family physicians and trainees who were keen to learn and at the same time, shared their own experience! The key message from this final session, I think, was to say ‘YES’ to the opportunities that crossed our path and be the best in what we do.

Overall, we learnt about many aspects of being clinicians and/or academicians. We hope that Professor Pinnock enjoyed her time in UPM and Malaysia. We wish to see more of future engagement and collaboration with the University of Edinburgh. I am sure we all look forward to Professor Pinnock next visit to Malaysia (after all, she is part of Team Malaysia in the RESPIRE project!)

A special thanks to the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and UPM for supporting this activity. Not to forget the academic and support staffs from the department of Family Medicine coordinated by our head of department, Assoc. Prof. Dr Cheong Ai Theng. This will never come to success without your excellent teamwork!