PROF. DR. RAFIDAH BINTI ATAN

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 (Kuala Lumpur Hospital, Sultanah Aminah and Sultan Ismail Hospitals in Johor Bahru, 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. She was entrusted to develop and deliver the Patient Safety component during the Pre-intern (PRINT) training period as part of Universiti Malaya Medical Programme (UMMP) in 2020. She is currently the UMMP coordinator for the Anaesthesia Rotation and  through this appointment continues to integrate patient safety, crisis management skills and simulation-based training into the Acute Medicine posting in 2022.

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, between the years 2016 until 2019, she was a facilitator of the highly regarded Asia-Pacific Evidence-Based Medicine and Nursing (APEBMN) Conference conducted annually in Singapore.

Her most recent ventures in education include being a member of newly minted 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 difficulty conversations in various clinical settings and inclusion of humanities component of the undergraduate medical curriculum.

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 that include the Long-Term Effects of COVID-19 Intensive Care Survivors and the Outcomes of Infection Control and Antibiotic Stewardship Program in Intensive Care Units.

Her academic contributions expand to many external societal and speaking engagements. She is currently a member of the Council Member of the College of Anaesthesiologists, Academy of Medicine Malaysia, and the Critical Care Section Editor of the Malaysian Journal of Anaesthesiology published by the Malaysian Society of Anaesthesiologists. She has been invited to speak on many occasions, especially on simulation, patient safety and intensive care topics. These include lectures at international conferences like the World Congress of Intensive Care Medicine, the Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM) of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA) and the Faculty of Pain Medicine (FPM), Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA) and the Faculty of Pain Medicine (FPM), the Asia Pacific Medical Education Conference (APMEC), and the ASEAN Simulation User Network Meetings.