Lucy Lum Chai See joined the University of Malaya, Department of Paediatrics in 1990. Assigned to the paediatric acute care ward, she recognised the need of acutely ill children and set to look after them even though resources were meagre, the resistance to expansion stiff and the doctors and nurses lacking in knowledge and skills. Pioneers of Paediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) were invited to Malaysia to begin PALS training. Over the next four years, Lucy and colleagues contributed to twenty-five consecutive training courses for >800 doctors and nurses in 12 of 13 states. Her enthusiasm and perseverance saw her refining the management of severe dengue in children and other critical conditions. She underwent clinical-fellowship training in paediatric intensive care in The Hospital for Sick Children, in 1996. The Toronto and the North American experience shaped Lucy’s physiological approach to mechanical ventilation of healthy and sick lungs.  She later became the first Malaysian to complete the Paediatric examination for the European Diploma in Intensive Care.  Back in Malaysia, the P1 Acute Care Ward was hit by a shortage of funding and support. Despite of the limited resources, the unit played a key role in defining the pathophysiology of EV71 outbreak which caused many deaths in 1997. In 2001 the Hospital allowed a charity fund to be established.  Soon after The Star highlighted the PICU work, generous support poured in through individual, public and corporate donations. Then UMMC eventually acknowledged the work and formed the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit.  For the first time the PICU received a stronger allocation of nurses and budget needed to ensure the smooth delivery of intensive care for children. Humanitarian medicine should not be a casualty of technology.  Lucy is very much a hands-on bedside doctor. Her clinical rounds are characterised by both an incisive analysis of history, physical examinations and investigations as well as standing back to view the “Google map”.  Doctors and nurses are trained not just to treat the disease, but to treat the patient as a human being connected to families and societies. Her clinical expertise was sought after by WHO, and regional offices in the Western-Pacific Region where she has been to China, Laos, the Solomon Islands and Africa.  She was invited by WHO/TDR to be the lead author of the handbook on clinical case management of dengue and by WPRO to design a training curriculum of dengue management.  She was credited for bringing calm to a chaotic situation in the Solomon Islands, a poor nation of islands in the middle of the Pacific. Re-training doctors in basic clinical techniques which identify the high risk patients was her legacy. She has managed to unify the various clinical departments in UMMC to work together so that dengue patients do not fall between the cracks. She collaborated with the various hospitals in Ministry of Health and WHO, Geneva, Oxford University, Brandeis University, and other universities in Singapore, SEAsia, Latin America and European Union. In the field of paediatric intensive care, she collaborates with colleagues in North America and around the world in pediatric sepsis, congenital diaphragmatic hernia and neonatal hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy.   Compassion has to be the driving force behind the otherwise just another slogan, “First, do no harm”. Through her inspirational leadership, the PICU which used to record high rates of nosocomial infections has been transformed into one with high rates of hand hygiene and low rates of infection.  Yet, the work is not finished; her KPI (key performance index) for her staff is zero blood stream infection.  Indeed this is possible.

Dr. Chui Pin Leaw is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Ocean and Earth Sciences (IOES), University of Malaya. Her research pertains to marine protistology and phycology, focusing on the studies of Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs). Her research spans ecology, taxonomy, molecular systematics, evolution, and the genetics and toxigenesis of harmful toxic microalgae. She commenced her academic career at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) in September 2008 as a senior lecturer DS51 in the Faculty of Resource Science and Technology, and a Research Fellow at the Institute of Biodiversity and Environmental Conservation (IBEC). She obtained her First Class BSc. (H), in Marine Science from the National University of Malaysia (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia) and subsequently earned her MSc. and Ph.D. in Marine Science from the same institution. She is affiliated with professional organizations pertinent to her field of study, including the International Society for the Study of Harmful Algae (ISSHA), the Phycological Society of America (PSA), and the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). She is actively engaged in editorial responsibilities, having been appointed as a reviewer for high-impact factor journals (BMC Evolutionary Biology, PlosONE, Harmful Algae, Scientific Reports), and has served as a regional editor on the editorial board of Harmful Algae News. Throughout her academic tenure, she has mentored over 40 undergraduate students, six Ph.D. candidates and 16 MSc students who have completed their studies under her guidance. 

Dr. Chui Ping Lei is a registered nurse, completed her Master of Medical Science (Nursing) in 2008, and joined the Department of Nursing Science in 2010. In 2015, she obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Malaya. Apart from teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students, she has been involved in curriculum development/review, coordinating the Master of Nursing Science Program, and serving as an external examiner for program improvement. She is active in research work. Her research interests are cancer care (quality of life, symptom burden/management, CAM, patient education), complementary integrative therapy (oral cryotherapy, mindful breathing, mind-body practices, kangaroo mother care), and issues related to nurses/ nursing education/ nursing management (health behavior, professional quality of life, workplace violence, information literacy, teaching-learning), stoma care, wound care, and adult/ neonatal nursing care. She has published extensively in international peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Chui has been awarded the Universiti Malaya Excellence Award for Ph.D. Graduated in 2015,  Certificate of Excellence Service 2022, Excellence Service Award 2019 & 2023, and Asian University Alliance Scholar in 2020.