19 April 2024

UP VOICE VOL.51 – November 2020

The Official Newsletter of the University of Puthisastra (UP)-Vol.51 November 2020 Download

Welcome back UP students!

26th October 2020 marked the first day of UP reopening to all students. UP is one of the first universities in Cambodia allowed to reopen. We are delighted to welcome UP students back to the campus. UP has led the way in Cambodia with online learning and we will continue to do so, because providing students with the best possible education remains our number one priority.

At UP, we formed a committee dedicated to developing guidelines to effectively implement Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) and other health, hygiene and safety measures required by the Ministry and Royal Government of Cambodia.

The reopening process has been a collaborative one that has involved the Deans, Heads of Departments and the whole UP management team, consulting with professionals at Ministry level, including the Ministry of Health (MoH) and the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MoEYS). Our plans are comprehensive indicating UP’s expertise when it comes to ensuring the safety of everyone – exactly what you’d expect from UP!

“After the approval from ministry of education to allow the institution to reopen physically, the first day of my year 4, I see that there are rules and regulations that UP students and staff have to follow. Firstly at the gate there is temperature-checked point by security guard. And then you will have to sign in the book note of your arrival information. Secondly there is a sign to obey social distancing rules in everywhere (2 meters apart) in the campus and classrooms. Thirdly I see there are hand sanitizer in different places and soap in all rest rooms. Last but not least everyone have to wear face mask all the time and face shield once they go to clinic or lab.” Said MAK Sangdor, Dentistry Student, Year 4.

Welcome back to UP!

WHAT’S UP ON CAMPUS -05 NOVEMBER, UP BLOOD DONATION DAY                                                      -09 NOVEMBER, INDEPENDENCE DAY OF CAMBODIA

FLOOD RELIEF in Banteay Meanchey and Battambang


UP, with SOMA group and subsidiaries, joined a response in the flood relief in the commune of Otaki, Banteay Meanchey and Russey Krok commune, Battambang. Over the past week, the organizing team, Soma Initiative, has been working to meet the needs of hundreds of families who are stranded with no food, clean water, or adequate shelter during this tough time.

UP and SOMA subsidiary, Cambodia Power Transmission Lines (CPTL), our teams, led by chairwoman Sok Soma and CEO Cham Krasna, went to donate food, medicines and mosquitoes net to 132 families, all victims of the flood. Thanks to the organizing teams and all volunteers from Soma Group, CPTL, UP and also to the UYFC Battambang and Sisophon for their precious time and help.

UPs Dean of Pharmacy, Dr Chea Sin also provided education on appropriate health care to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Everyone involved felt that it was a great activity which allowed both UP and the Soma Group to make a real and substantial contribution to all victims of the flood.

Blood donation Day at UP

University of Puthisastra, in collaboration with the National Blood Transfusion Center, will organize Blood donation event that will take place on 5th November 2020 at the University of Puthisastra. Save a Life, Give Blood.

 

The purpose of the event is to raise awareness and encourage everyone to make voluntary blood donations, and to set a good example of being voluntary blood donors to the general public. Looking forward to seeing you on the 5th November 2020!

 

Pre-registration for the donation via the following link: https://docs.google.com/…/19hFPTkqRb0pr6S7o…/edit…

UP ADDS NEW 2-CHAIR ROOM TO DENTAL CLINIC

Construction has begun on the new 2-chair orthodontic room attached to the existing 19 chair dental clinic. This extension is needed because we are getting more and more patients coming to UP for orthodontic treatment, and because we are looking forward to starting a new postgraduate orthodontic course next year.

Once the room is ready, we will be installing two new chairs. When not being used for orthodontic patients, the room can be used by our tutors and residents to treat private patients.

Along with the clinic extension we have just employed one new dental assistant to join our hard-working dental assistant team.

When Technology Science meets Health Sciences!

UP students invent Smart Medicine Box

The Internet of things (IoT) describes the network of physical objects “things” that are embedded with sensors, software, and other technologies for the purpose of connecting and exchanging data with other devices and systems over the Internet. Smart IoT challenge is a 48-hour hackathon, where entrepreneurs are given the time to build a prototype IoT (Internet of Things) product tackling one of these sectors: health, education, environment, agriculture, industrial, and security.

Entrepreneurs are also taught to program and build basic functionalities with Arduino boards so they can build a working prototype. They are given 5 mins to pitch their idea in front of a judging panel. The winner gets $500 and runner up $300. UP students Henry Chea and Soradet Lim who are from MeetDoctor were arranged with two more members, Laksmy Sreng and Rothsamnang Phalla. They came up with an idea of building a smart medicine box for old people for their daily use. The box was built with three main functions, the real time and date on the display screen just like a normal clock, a speaker with recorded sound as a reminder, and an opening-closing sensor.

“Let’s imagine my grandmother has hypertension and she needs to take her medication every morning. As I knew that my grandmother often forgets things, so I use this smart medicine box and set a reminder at 7 am every morning with a recorded sound of mine. As a result of that, every morning at 7 am, the box will speak to remind her to take medicine until she takes out the drug and closes the box with a sensor attached to the cap of the box.” Said Soradet.

With this wonderful solution, Smart Medicine Box project won 2nd Prize of the competition with a $300 prize awarded. Well done UP students.

Faculty of Medicine has offered Online Students’ Orientation

On 19th and 21st October 2020, the Faculty of Medicine welcomed the MD students to the new academic year 2020-2021 by offering Online Orientation.

The Dean of the Faculty, Prof. Sandro Vento, gave a brief speech outlining the importance of focusing on studies, studying constantly and hard, and avoiding any cheating in the exams. The Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs, Dr. Thao Titya, and the Medicine Officer, Dr. Kong Srey Nuch, illustrated the policies of the University and the Faculty, and explained the platform that will be used in “hybrid” (some students in class, some online) theory classes.

The Laboratory Assistants, Ms. Sorn Sreylen and Mr. Voch Samran, informed the students about the laboratory policy and mentioned the equipment of each laboratory. The Deputy Dean for Clinical Affairs, Dr. Prom Vireak, informed the students about the new clerkship and internship policies and related logbooks, and encouraged them to follow those carefully and to maximize their opportunities to learn clinical medicine during the various hospital rotations. The Faculty of Medicine wishes all the MD students a very productive and successful new academic year!

UP and AHHA work together to provide needy Cambodians with dentures

AHHA, our Australian NGO partner, was unfortunately unable to visit UP this year, but instead has provided funds to the UP Dental Clinic to provide much-needed partial and complete dentures for needy people, especially those from two deprived communities in Kandal province. Last week 5 UP dental students, Nam Virak, Seat Moniroth, Hen Sopheakta, Hong Konitha and Im Puthisa, travelled to Kandal to screen villagers who will later come to the UP Dental Clinic for treatment.

The two communities, at Punnealeur and Preakdam II, are located about 40km from Phnom Penh. One community could only be accessed by boat. During the day 59 villagers were screened and identified as needed partial or complete dentures. The oral health of people in the communities was generally poor, and UP dental students also provided other basic dental treatment for these patients as needed. UP is grateful for the on-going support and collaboration we have with AHHA and we look forward to their next visit to Cambodia, hopefully in 2021.

Study tour to V.S Medical Laboratory


On October 25th 2020, UPs Pharma-career Club led 40 student members on a study tour to V.S Medical Laboratory managed by Prof. Ket Vansith and Mr. Ket Vanseng. The laboratory is located at #223 st 369, Sankat Chbar Ampov, Khan Chbar Ampov, Phnom Penh. The purpose of this study tour was to provide knowledge to the participating students and to cultivate students’ interest in the field of Medical Biology. In the meantime, students are introduced to the modern laboratory equipment and some important work processes in the laboratory. Students learnt a lot from V.S Medical Laboratory and UP faculty of pharmacy would like to thank V.S medical laboratory for their warm and friendly welcome.

Local Dental Company Donates Surplus Stock to UP Faculty of Dentistry

The UP Faculty of Dentistry is grateful to the Unident Dental Supply Company for donations of expired dental products which can be used in our dental lab. Recently a large donation was received which can be used by students learning how to place dental restorations, mix materials, take impressions and other techniques in our dental SIM lab.

Such donations provide students with good quality materials to practice with, and also help our bottom line. Unident has been a good partner of UP for many years, and was responsible for setting up our clinic and SIM lab, and provide us with a regular maintenance and repair service. In addition Unident has run many Implant training courses here at UP. Thank you to Mr Sok Meng and his team from Unident.

Pharmacy Orientation for new academic year


Pharmacy education has changed in recent years. Pharmacy students increasingly need more practical skills which come from direct interactions with patients, health care providers and industrial pharmacists. To achieve this, students need more effective courses and clerkships. As academic success is very important for students, schools, universities and communities, UP is taking the lead in supporting a range of resources and services to help students achieve their goals.

For example UPs Faculty of Pharmacy has designed an orientation for pharmacy students to guide, educate, and train the students to be ready to learn and practice before they start a new academic year. We have invited several speakers who have experienced in both academic and non-academic matters to orient our students.

Moreover, speakers who successfully completed their clerkship in hospital and industries were also invited to come to share experiences and give an invaluable advice to our students. This orientation will give students a powerful guidance to succeed in their academic and future career.

Year 3 Dental Students Have OSCE Exam Before Starting Clinic Next Week

56 year three dental students have just completed their preclinical OSCE exam and are now ready to start treating patients for the first time next week as they start Year 4. The SIM lab was unavoidably delayed last semester by COVID-19, but ran very successfully in the semester break thanks to our dedicated team of tutors who closely supervised the students as they learned a wide range of basic clinical skills.

The OSCE exam consisted of 14 stations, and although students were anxious, they performed very well. We believe the students are now ready for the next important step in their journey to become a highly skilled dentist. All UP staff and students (and their friends and families) are welcome to come along for a free check-up.

UPOP training for students and lecturers


To support modern learning and teaching through technology, UP has developed its very own learning platform – UPOP. During the COVID-19 pandemic, although all physical education was suspended, UPOP online learning has been introduced and integrated into the curriculum.

This initiative allowed both teachers and students to improve their teaching skills for this digital transformation. All UP Faculties, with the support from learning and teaching department, have been working very hard to design a series of trainings for lecturers and students for this dramatic change. For upcoming new academic year, UP has provided trainings for students and lecturers on the use of UPOP, Google Meet, Google Drive and Email for the benefits of the synchronous and asynchronous teaching and learning. Beside this, we also provide more trainings on teaching and assessment methods so that students are able to receive the best quality education.

Our team are based in UPs new Digital Learning Centre and are looking forward to supporting lecturers and students on daily basis.

New Year 5 Dental Students Start Crown and Bridge SIM Lab

The new Year 5 class of students is now progressing towards carrying out more advanced dental treatment under the careful eye of their tutors. Leading the Crown and Bridge SIM Lab are Dr Soeurn Visal and Dr Chao Sivkay, both with Masters degrees in prosthodontics from Mahidol University in Thailand.The new Year 5 class of students is now progressing towards carrying out more advanced dental treatment under the careful eye of their tutors. Leading the Crown and Bridge SIM Lab are Dr Soeurn Visal and Dr Chao Sivkay, both with Masters degrees in prosthodontics from Mahidol University in Thailand.

The 5-week hands-on lab course will teach students the practical steps of how to prepare teeth for crowns and bridges, how to make temporary crown restorations, and how to prepare posts and cores. We are fortunate to have specialists, as well as other experienced dentists (such as Dr Po Malen and Dr Chea Senghuy), teaching our students at an international level. On completion of the SIM lab course students will be able to provide crowns and bridges for our UP Dental Clinic clients.

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