Message from the President

 

I would like to begin by greeting everyone a Happy New Year and welcome to 2018!

Another important year has passed.  Please let me take this opportunity to express my utmost gratitude to everyone who has contributed significantly to the Society.  It is because of this immeasurable support that the Society has grown from strength-to-strength.

I am extremely honoured to be given the chance to serve as the President 6 months ago.  Together with other council members, we promise to take our beloved society to a much greater height.  We hope MTS will continue to provide the platform for healthcare providers who are engaged in the care of patients with respiratory disorders to learn, to educate and to collaborate.

There are 3 important transformations we are going to introduce in 2018:

  • A redesigned website
  • The formation of specifically missioned subcommittees
  • The creation of special interest groups

 

Redesigned Website:

MTS website will continue to serve as one of the most important tools to reach out to our members and other audience.  However, over the years, as our activities increased in number and complexity, the existing website does appear a little cluttered without the built-in submenus to clearly distinguish the different types of activities that we are undertaking.  Besides, the behaviour of people accessing information via the web has changed significantly - from a large screen laptop/desktop to that of a smaller screen using their smartphones.  

In cognizance of this evolution, initiative to redesign the website has taken place about one year ago.  Today, I am proud to announce the launch of our newly redesigned website in conjunction with this brand new year.

You can be assured that more enhancement and improvement will be added to this website over time.

 

Subcommittees

In order to manage the increasingly demanding workload as well as to better streamline the different types of activities we are undertaking, 4 subcommittees have been proposed to look into specific tasks.  

  1. Education and training committee
  2. Science and Research committee
  3. Information Technology committee
  4. Standards of care committee

Members other than the elected Council will be invited to join these subcommittees. We hope with the expansion of these subcommittees, the Society will function more efficiently in future.

Click HERE for more details about the subcommittees.

 

Special Interest Groups (SIGs)

The scope of respiratory medicine is quite vast.  In order to advance this field to the level on par with those found in well-developed healthcare systems, some of us may need to super-specialise in certain respiratory diseases.  In order to achieve this goal, we are creating the Special Interest Groups within the society - its structure is very similar to those found in the European Respiratory Society and the Asian Pacific Society of Respirology.  We hope this arrangement will provide members with special interest to come together and share their views/experience.  Besides, group members may also offer advice to the organising committee in our annual scientific congress and other scientific events.

Click HERE for more details about the SIGs

 

I look forward to sharing more MTS news with you in the near future.

 

Assoc Prof Dr Pang Yong Kek
President
Malaysian Thoracic Society