The ATLS (Advanced Trauma Life Support) Asia Pacific (Region XV1) Meeting was held at the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, University of Hong Kong on 5 November, 2016. One of the highlights of the meeting was the Resident Paper Competition to encourage surgical trainees to pursue research in trauma related subjects. The paper may be in Basic Science or Clinical Science research. Surgical trainees in all ATLS countries in the Asia Pacific region are invited to participate in this competition and shortlisted participants will make an oral presentation of their work at the ATLS Regional meeting. The winner at the Regional meeting will compete in the final competition to be held during the Annual meeting of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Committee on Trauma (COT) in Washington DC in 2 March, 2017. The ACS will pay the economy airfare to the USA and a 3 day hotel stay. The winner is also expected to attend the COT banquet. Both first-place papers in the Basic Science and Clinical science categories will be eligible for publication in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. This year the shortlisted participants of the Resident Paper Competition were from Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand and Malaysia. Malaysia was represented by Dr Sabrina Balakrishnan. Sabrina is a graduate of the International Medical University, Malaysia and is currently working as a medical officer in surgery in Hospital Kajang under Mr Andre Das. She hopes to be selected into the Master of Surgery program in the future. The title of her oral presentation was “ Cries in the Dark: Post –traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in Adolescents Following Motor Vehicle Aaccidents is no small matter.” The co-authors of the paper were Drs Tharveen N, Thanabalan S, Tassha HA, Johann FK and Andre Das. She made an excellent oral presentation and won the first prize.
The ATLS fraternity of Malaysia and the College of Surgeons, Academy of Medicine of Malaysia is extremely proud of her achievement and hope that her success will spur other Malaysian surgical trainees to achieve greater heights in the future.
Congratulations to Dr Sabrina Balakrishnan!
Written by: Prof Lum Siew Kheong, ATLS Chair, Malaysia
