PROF. DR. MARY JOSEPH MARRET

Mary J Marret is a paediatrician with a special interest in community paediatrics. She received her undergraduate and postgraduate training under the National University of Singapore and has been practising as a paediatrician for over twenty years. She holds an academic position as Professor under the Department of Paediatrics at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur with a parallel clinical appointment as consultant paediatrician at the University of Malaya Medical Centre.

She has extensive experience in undergraduate and postgraduate training and has been actively involved in the development and implementation of the undergraduate and postgraduate paediatric curriculum at the Faculty of Medicine. For a number of years she has coordinated the monthly postgraduate teaching schedule at the Department of Paediatrics. Currently she is the Paediatric Assessment Coordinator for  undergraduate students following the University of Malaya Medical Programme. As a Fellow of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, UK, she is an examiner for membership examinations conducted by the RCPCH.

She is Chairman of the Child Protection Committee at the UM Medical Centre. She has an interest in enhancing professional capacity and competence of professionals in the field of child protection both within the institution as well as in the country. She provides consultation to a multidisciplinary team that performs assessments of children referred for suspected child maltreatment and conducts in-house training for doctors, nurses and social workers involved in this multi-disciplinary care. She has been invited by other local health care and educational institutions to give lectures in child protection. She is Chair of the child protection subcommittee of the Malaysian Paediatric Association. She also provides clinical services for children with disabilities and developmental problems. She is a member of the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect and was part of the scientific committee for the 10th ISPCAN Asia Pacific Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect held recently in Kuala Lumpur. She is a member of an international committee of experts under the auspices of the World Health Organisation to develop  guidelines for the health sector response to child maltreatment. 

Her research interests are in child victimization across a variety of settings with publications in scientific journals and book chapters. She has collaborated in population-based research regarding the epidemiology of child maltreatment in Malaysia as well as the exposure of Malaysian adolescents to risks and victimization through the use of communication technology. She has presented papers relating to child maltreatment in Malaysia in local and international conferences. She has also been a reviewer for medical journals. On behalf of the Malaysian Paediatric Association, she has written articles providing advice on child health which have been published in a local parenting magazine as well newspapers. She utilises creative writing and music as channels to reflect on insights derived from her interaction with children.