2023/11/01 【Activity Results】 International Advisory Committee (IAC) Consultation Meeting in Kuching, Malaysia

On October 30, we held a CCHP International Advisory Committee (IAC) Consultation Meeting in Kuching, Malaysia, during the 54^th Asia Pacific Academic Consortium for Public Health (APACPH) Conference 2023. We invited 5 IAC members from 5 different countries: Dr. Agustin Kusumayati, Secretary to the University of Indonesia, Indonesia; Dr. Maznah Binti Dahlui, Senior Professor of Health Policy and Management Unit, Department of Social and Preventive Medicine from the University of Malaya, Malaysia; Dr. Indika Karunathilake, Professor and the Head of the Department of Medical Education Faculty of Medicine from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka; Dr. So Yoon Kim, Professor of Health Law and Ethics from Yonsei University College of Medicine, Republic of Korea; Dr. Jun Kobayashi, Dean of the Graduate School of Health Sciences from the University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa, Japan.
 
The meeting started with an opening by Dr. Betty Ya-Wen Chiu, and then Dr. Hung-Yi Chiou led the discussion with IAC members. There are two main topics under discussion: 1. The possibility to initiate NCDs policy effectiveness evaluation joint symposium (online or physical) to share each country's experiences 2. The possibility to initiate NCDs joint research collaboration through (1) case studies, (2) policy effectiveness evaluation.
 
All IAC members recognized the importance of these two topics and recommended encouraging different countries to share their policies and experiences on how to apply academic research results to practical policies and the evaluation of policy effectiveness. Dr. Maznah Binti Dahlui suggested that we could target an upcoming non-communicable disease policy, apply this policy to different countries, and compare the evaluation of policy effectiveness between them. Dr. Agustin Kusumayati suggested that we need clear Terms Of Reference (TOR) to lead the researchers and proposed a multicenter study, encouraging CCHP to develop a standard research methodology. Dr. So Yoon Kim suggested that we can designate one or two domestic researchers as representatives of the country, provide a ‘Self-analysis tool for NCD policy and another status’, and create moments for researchers to gather together at the APACPH session or in Taiwan regularly. Dr. Jun Kobayashi mentioned that JC-GSHR (Japanese Consortium for Global School Health Research) has experience on multi-country analysis of policy and policy implementation in Asia and Pacific island countries. However, it has not been included in Chinese-speaking countries, such as Taiwan, Singapore, etc. If CCHP can handle the Health Promotion School Policy (HPS), they can expand the network. Furthermore, he suggested that CCHP should set the research focus on case studies. If Taiwan has advanced experiences, it is possible to focus on analysis because it needs good examples and standards for mapping of policy analysis.