KUALA LUMPUR – The Health Ministry (MoH) and National Sports Institute (NSI) today signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to seal cooperation towards enhancing the quality of sports medicine.
Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah signed on behalf of the ministry, and NSI chief executive Ahmad Faedzal Md Ramli for the institute.
MoH and NSI, in a joint statement today, said they had carried out a number of direct and indirect collaborations previously, and the signing of the MoU is expected to strengthen their services, training, research, and publication collaboration in sports medicine.
“It will spur the country’s efforts to improve and maintain the health of society and change the country’s health landscape from ‘sick care’ to ‘health care’,” read the statement.
“The empowerment of sports medicine will also be able to reduce the cost of treating non-communicable and infectious diseases, thereby improving people’s quality of life and the country’s productivity – as well as improving the nation’s progress in sports.”
According to the statement, one of the aspects of cooperation to be focused on is sports science clinical services and the referral of identified clients between the ministry and NSI – based on locality, facilities, and the presence of current sports medicine specialists.
This includes strengthening the involvement and role of NSI and MoH as the main reference sources in sports medicine for any activity, event, competition, or sports tournament, it said.
Both parties also hoped that the MoU signing would help improve the skills and experience of sports medicine specialists, reduce treatment costs through the sharing of medical equipment and technology, and facilitate the referral of patients who need services in certain medical and sports science specialties.
The ministry and NSI will also serve as reference and training centres for major sports medicine and through research and publication collaboration, both parties will intensify research expertise sharing to develop medicine and sports science.
This includes any research in the field of medicine and sports science, access to data, interests in intellectual property rights, and publication of research results or presentations at the international level by mutual agreement, it said.
The ministry and NSI hoped that more citizens will be involved regularly and consistently in sports and physical activities, inculcating healthy living practices and further realising the country’s aspirations to improve public health. – Bernama, April 3, 2023
