Rheumatology Service

SERVICE / SECTION

The Rheumatology services offered at UMMC heavily involve outpatient care. These services include Daycare services, basic musculoskeletal ultrasound, management of connective tissue diseases and inflammatory arthritis at the respective clinics, and additional provision of private rheumatology care at UMSC. The unit holds two outpatiet clinics each week and hosts one daycare session at UMMC.

• Rheumatology daycare sessions are for patients on biologic infusions, immunosuppressant infusions and basic musculoskeletal ultrasound.

• The Wednesday morning session is held at Klinik Perubatan 2 and is primarily focused on Lupus or SLE, scleroderma, vasculitides, Sjogren's syndrome, other connective tissue diseases and difficult-to-diagnose conditions.

• The clinic sessions on Thursday afternoons take place at Klinik Perubatan 1. These sessions are centred around Inflammatory Arthritis, which includes Rheumatoid Arthritis, Axial Spondyloarthritis or Ankylosing Spondylitis, Psoriatic Arthritis, and Gout. In addition, the unit also manages Osteoarthritis, Fibromyalgia, and Soft Tissue Rheumatism.

The hospital has an inpatient management unit for rheumatology services situated in Ward 12U of Menara Utama. This unit is the primary clinical service and teaching platform for rheumatology in the hospital. This facility is capable of accomodating between 5 to 7 inpatient cases simultaneously. However, this capacity has been intentionally restricted to effectively handle the complexity and multidisciplinary nature of the cases. The unit also has access to the high-dependecy and intensive care facilities.

The  Rheumatology unit currently has a dedicated nurse, acting as a Rheumatology Nurse, to assist in patient education and other specialized care of patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis, Lupus and other rheumatological diseases. The department aims to increase the number of specialized nurses trained in Rheumatology.

Our clinic at Universiti Malaya Medical Center (UMMC)

Education & Training (Courses / CME /  Fellowship)

The Rheumatology unit currently comprises of clinical fellows and advanced trainees. Trainee rheumatologists who have obtained approval from the Malaysian Medical Councli and the Universiti Malaya Madical Centre's Credentialing and Privileging Committee are welcome to undergo training with the unit.

Continous supervision and teaching of medical students under the UMMP Medical Degree program, students under the diploma in Nursing, and medical postgraduate programs, including Masters in Internal Medicine and PhD. Sessions for CME in rheumatology and Journal Club sessions are scheduled for Thrusdays at lunchtime.

The unit has successfully organized rheumatology training workships in UMMC, involving participants across Malaysia and form overseas. Our consultants actively participate in educating rheumatology trainees and rheumatologists in both national and international webinar paltforms and preceptorship programs. In addition to this, our consultants are regular invited speakers in both national and international conferences and meetings.