DEAN OF MEDICINE APPOINTED!

Professor Vento was previously Dean of Medicine as well as Medical Director of the University Medical Center in Kazakhstan. He is also adjunct Professor of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, USA. Previous to this he was Professor of Medicine & Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Botswana in Gaborone from 2009 to 2015. Professor Vento has an impressive academic career including at the University of Verona where he was Associate Professor of Infectious Diseases. He earned his MD with honors and his specialization in Infectious Diseases from the University of Bologna, Italy. His research has focused on viral hepatitis, autoimmune hepatitis and HIV infection – a real benefit to our students and to Cambodia.

He has over 200 publications including in The Lancet; The New England Journal of Medicine; Gastroenterology; Hepatology; Clinical Infectious Diseases; Autoimmunity Reviews; AIDS. We are excited to have Professor Vento’s caliber and expertise at UP and look forward to benefiting from his years of experience as a Dean to University of Puthisastra!

WORLD RECOGNITION IN DENTISTRY AND PHARMACY

The University of Puthisastra (UP) is growing from strength to strength and we are very proud That that our Faculties of Dentistry Pharmacy are now recognized internationally – the only schools in Cambodia! Dental (http://www.dentaljuce.com /fruit/docs/World_Dental_schools.htm) and Pharmacy(http://academic_ institutional_membership.fip.org /world-list-of-pharmacy-schools/?region=&country=Cambodia&show=AIM). We are delighted in the progress that UP is making is being recognized across the World as well as making a real difference to Cambodian lives.

GREAT NEWS FOR UP MEDICAL STUDENTS!

UP is now registered in the World Registry of Medical schools, this means that UP medical students are now recognized internationally and have much better opportunities to study and train abroad. We look forward to seeing UP students being Medical Leaders not just in Cambodia but across the World.

FACEBOOK DEVELOPER CIRCLE PHNOM PENH

Fantastic ReactJS workshop was recently held ith volunteers from the Facebook Developer Circle Phnom Penh. In just 4 hours, students were able to build interfaces for a music streaming app with the support of talented anddedicated UP teachers and mentors. Watch the University of Puthisastra – ICT Public Facebook page for the next event! Thanks to the Facebook Developer Circle group!

UP STUDENT

CLUB FAIR 2019

Student Affairs supports faculties and individual students in developing, launching and maintaining clubs. Clubs are designed for career and leadership development, physical activity and wellness, advancing practical skills and as a key aspect of an exciting, learning-focused UP student experience. As well as being fun! A recent club fair consists of Arts & Culture Clubs (Bokator Club, Music Club, E-Sports Club), English Language Club (English Corner, Debate Club), Wellness Clubs (Running Club, Football Club) and Various Clubs from Department of Medicine and Department of Pharmacy. UP students joining these clubs will extend their bodies as well as their minds to become well rounded, professional graduates and future employees.

Counselling Students Meeting Reflection with

Leah Maxxine WOOD about community health

When I first walked into the room of about fifteen first-year Counseling students, I felt intimidated. Though these people are Counselors-in-Training, and likely one of the most welcoming and open-hearted groups of people I’ve had the opportunity to meet in Cambodia, there is still something a little anxiety-inducing about walking into a room full of people you’ve never met and answering questions about a topic as deeply personal as your values and thoughts on religion. I made the mistake of wearing my University of Puthisastra identification badge into the room, and I think that many students also felt shy at first, correctly assuming that I was foreign UP staff.

After the first few rounds of questions, I felt more comfortable, as I felt the students also relaxing and letting go of some anxiety about my role at UP. I answered questions about my history in Cambodia, experiences working cross-culturally, my thoughts on religion and values, and how those values are applied to subjects like religious tolerance and LBTQ+ rights. Overall, I was impressed with the care and thoughtfulness of the Counseling Students’ questions, and that it was a safe space, despite the sensitivity of the subjects being addressed. I felt very much like the students acted like professionals and did an excellent job of balancing curiosity around certain topics with intuition and respect for any boundaries that I wanted to set. After finishing the last few questions, we took a photo together and the students gave me a small gift, which was really thoughtful and kind. I left feeling grateful for the experience, and spent a lot of the rest of the day reflecting on the students’ questions and responses to my responses.

UP Faculty of Dentistry has just acquired the latest digital x-ray sensor for use in its dental clinic, thanks to a donation by UP dental tutor Dr Chris Park. The new sensor provides the highest resolution image with excellent quality and instantaneous imaging on a monitor.

These benefits will help UP students correctly diagnose dental problems and therefore provide better treatment. The x-ray sensor is also much safer by reducing patient’s exposure to radiation 10 fold compared to a conventional film x-ray. UP dental clinic continues to upgrad to the latest high tech equipment to provide best quality education expertise to its students and patients.

An Exciting Annual UP Pharmacy Trip 2019

to Coastal Region in the Southwest of Cambodia

This trip was one of the most memorable, insightful and useful experiences for students and faculties to experience an outreach programs and bonding adventure at the stunning natural beauty from green mountainous regions to coastal locations in the southwest of Cambodia. This was a two-day trip for students to gain a deeper understanding pharmacy employment for example roles of pharmacist in the community, to establish interdisciplinary bonds as well as importantly dvelope and deliver much needed health care provision to the region. The first day of the trip focused on the medicine use medication review, screening for diabetes and hypertension risk factors among the villagers and health education on dengue fever and diarrhea for primary school students in Tani commune of Kampot province. Many, many villagers participated in this outreach program and were veryto receive health advice. Villagers also learnt about the risk of using medicines without prescription and proper use of medicines. The next morning, the first Ekiden Relay was organized at Kep province to by running or doing physical exercise to keep fit. After the race, we enjoyed a variety of team-building games at the beach before heading back home and looked forward to seeing our nice photos as a milestone memory for the years to come!

Re-imagining healthcare in Cambodia:

how can innovation in pharmacy change the lives of your community?

Mélanie Mossard, a venture director of Impact Hub, Phnom Penh shared a very interesting Healthcare topic at the Pharma Club. To cultivate creative ideas, leadership, and entrepreneurship, Mélanie showed students several videos about the innovation and sustainability in healthcare industry around the world. During her speech, students reflected on their own inspirations and the role they want to play in this fast moving world. She finished by telling students how they could involve in the Impact Hub and to think of any new ideas that might make community a better place to live, to work and to play. To the Pharmacy students were really inspired and now look forward to hearing the new projects from them with the support from their lecturers and Impact Hub.

IMPLANT TRAINING FROM CHIANGMAI UNIVERSITY (CMU)

In collaboration with Chiang Mai University, our final year UP dental students undertook a 1 day workshop last week on dental implants. Teachers were Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pathawee Khongkhunthian, Director of Center of Excellence for Dental Implantology, Faculty of Dentistry, Chiang Mai University, and Dr. Sam Lyly, a Cambodian PhD candidate in implantology at CMU. Dental implants are now regarded as the best replacement for lost teeth and are becoming more and more popular all around the world. Our senior UP students have two semesters of implant training from our own expert team (lead by Dr Tak Ranuch), and are then able to provide simple implants for patients during their final year. The CMU Workshop reinforced what the students had already learned – including the updated implant protocol, system, workflow and how to do implants digitally versus conventionally. In the afternoon session, students were able to do hands-on intraoral scanner practice as well as placing an implant on a jaw model. University of Puthisastra is the first and only dental school in Cambodia that provides this opportunity for students to learn and practice.

Junior Anatomy Physiology Club (JAPC )

Junior Anatomy – physiology (JAPC) is one part of UP Medical Clubs (UPMC) in Faculty of Medicine. This club meets every Sunday at 1 pm to 3 pm. students are required to finish all four parts of JAPC to graduate and gain certificates from Faculty of Medicine Students affair office. The 1st part of JAPC starts from January 20 till March 24, 2019. Juniors will learn how to learn about anatomy and physiology through Year 1 until Year 3. Extra-curricular activities are planned to in this club to stimulate our juniors with high quality, good education, good experiences and good advice. These Basic subjects are not easy to learn, but our JAPC club provides the support to make it much easier