World Hearing Day 2022

Hearing Care across the Lifespan and Education: Malaysia and Indonesia Perspectives

17 March 2022

Following last year's success, the Audiology Programme has held another international event featuring three universities: Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM, Malaysia), Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM, Indonesia), and Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI, Malaysia). This event was held in connection with World Hearing Day 2022 on 17 March 2022 with the theme "to hear for life, listen with care". The World Health Organization (WHO) established this campaign as one of several ways to raise awareness about the significance of healthy hearing, prevention, early identification, and proper treatment of hearing loss. Additionally, we at the national level, especially USM, have been actively promoting the spirit of World Hearing Day by participating as a partner with the Ministry of Health Malaysia. This year, Malaysia's Health Minister, YB Khairy Jamaluddin, launched World Hearing Day 2022 at the national level (Malaysia) in Serdang Hospital on the 3rd March 2022. He stated that Malaysia would have 40,743 registered deaf and hard of hearing adults and children by 31st December 2021. However, these statistics were underreported. He advised deaf and hard of hearing individuals to register with national disabled people plan to be eligible for all available benefits. Apart from this, the Audiology Programme at the School of Health Sciences and the Audiology Clinic at Hospital USM would like to address our common interest in the larger problem of hearing health care across the lifespan and in education in Malaysia and Indonesia Perspectives.

               Professor Dato' Dr. Faisal Rafiq Mahamd Adikan, FASc., Vice-Chancellor of Universiti Sains Malaysia, officiated this event. He extended his heartfelt gratitude to all committee members for their efforts in assuring the success of this event and appreciation to our industry partners, notably Best Hearing Aid Sdn Bhd. and Cochlear. Additionally, he stated, "USM places a premium on developing hearing healthcare, and on underscoring our commitment, we were able to receive RM120 million through RMK 12 for the establishment of Kompleks Klinik Pakar, which includes a large Audiology Clinic. This endeavour is scheduled to conclude in 2025. Additional hearing healthcare clinics at USM will enhance the community access to specialist audiological services".

               Nine speakers from USM, UGM, and UPSI were invited to share their experiences in related fields to accomplish this event's purpose. Additionally, this event had three distinct sections: keynote speakers, hearing (Room 1), and education and psychology (Room 2). We received a total of 263 participants from Malaysia and Indonesia. The event lasted over five hours and had a great reaction, with the majority of attendees rating the event as strongly agree (58.6%) or agree (39.5%) that it met their expectations for the program's quality.

The hope is that this event will foster collaboration between USM, UGM, and UPSI. Additionally, it is intended that all information sharing sessions would benefit the audience's ability to interact with persons who are deaf or hard of hearing, particularly those relating to hearing, education, and psychology.

The recording link for this programme is available at the following websites:

a) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkHsDPaXf78&t=4627s (morning session)

b) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaeJlyzLegQ&t=1050s (Room 1: Hearing)

c)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mdk3l6caZRo&t=2295s (Room 2: Education & Psychology)