Rafidah Atan is Professor in the Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya and Consultant Intensivist in the Universiti Malaya Medical Centre.

Rafidah graduated with MBBS in 1996 and Master of Anaesthesiology in 2003 from Universiti Malaya, and for the latter she was also awarded the K. Pathmarajah Gold Medal. She went on to earn the Fellowship of Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthesiologists (FANZCA) in 2006, European Diploma in Intensive Care (EDIC) in 2012 and PhD (Monash University) in 2018. Her academic career saw her serving in Monash University Malaysia, from 2006, as one of the pioneer staff members of its Clinical School Johor Bahru, until 2020 when she joined Universiti Malaya. In Monash University Malaysia, she was actively involved in educational roles, co-ordinating the MBBS Final (Pre-intern) Year and the Patient Safety Unit. For the Patient Safety Unit, she notably received the Monash University’s Purple Letter for outstanding student evaluation results in 2011, 2014 and 2015. Her clinical career, on the other hand, ranged from Registrar to Consultant appointments at various hospitals in Malaysia (Hospital Kuala Lumpur, Hospital Sultanah Aminah, Hospital Sultan Ismail and Universiti Malaya Medical Centre) and in Australia (Royal Melbourne Hospital and Austin Hospital, Melbourne).

Rafidah is a simulation enthusiast and frequently convenes simulation workshops, as well as accepting speaking engagements on this topic. She was a member of the protem committee in setting up the Malaysian Society for Simulation in Healthcare (MaSSH) and thereafter was its Vice Chairman from 2019 to 2021. Her experience and leadership in simulation combines well with her other passion - teaching and promoting Patient Safety and crisis management skills to medical undergraduates and other healthcare professionals. After joining Universiti Malaya, she was appointed Lead of the Writing Committee for the National Postgraduate Medical Curriculum: Patient Safety Core Curriculum that was released in 2021. 

Rafidah has other educational passions including teaching of evidence-based medicine (EBM) and critical appraisal of literature. She has been involved in numerous EBM workshops conducted on a national and regional level. Of special note, since 2016, she has been involved as one of facilitators for the highly regarded Asia-Pacific Evidence-Based Medicine and Nursing (APEBMN) Conference conducted annually in Singapore.

Her ventures in education include being a member of Medical Humanities and Ethics Unit (MedHEU) for which she leads the Medical Language and Linguistics section. Activities of this unit include conducting webinars on topics relating to difficult conversations in various clinical settings and inclusion of humanities component of the undergraduate medical curriculum. She is currently the Personal and Professional Development (PPD) coordinator for the undergraduate Universiti Malaya Medical Programme.

Rafidah also participates in clinical research in Intensive Care Medicine. Her PhD research is on high cut-off hemofiltration and cytokine removal in critically ill patients. She is currently involved in a few collaborative research projects on topics related to intensive care.

Rafidah currently heads the Department of Anaesthesiology, Faculty of Medicine Universiti Malaya.