A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed between the University of Nusa Cendana (UNDANA) and the University of Tasmania.

 

UNDANA is situated in Kupang, in the eastern Indonesian province of Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT), which includes West Timor.  UNDANA has a new medical school and the first cohort of students will graduate in 2013.

 

The MOU will initially focus on collaboration with between the UTAS School of Medicine and UNDANA School of Medicine, there is capacity for other schools and faculties at UTAS to develop their own specific collaborations, including staff and student exchanges, sharing curriculum, collaborative research and community development programs.

 

The Flinders Overseas Health Group (FOHG), a not-for-profit humanitarian group of doctors and other health professionals, has been visiting this region for many years. They have been providing health assistance and education programs with an aim to teach and upskill the local staff towards self-sufficiency through a combination of formal teaching and clinical mentoring.

 

One of the key members of FOHG is Dr Sean Beggs MBBS, FRACP, MPH who is a general paediatrician and clinical pharmacologist.

 

Dr Beggs has a longstanding commitment to child health in the Asia Pacific region. He is also a senior lecturer at the UTAS School of Medicine  and staff specialist at the Royal Hobart Hospital.

 

Dr Beggs has extended the clinical links through his work with FOHG to now include a growing academic collaboration with UNDANA and UTAS.

 

The next School of Medicine delegation to UNDANA will occur in April with the purpose of delivering a workshop series in evidence-based medicine. There also will be exploration of a student exchange program between our two undergraduate MBBS programs.

 

The first lecturer from UNDANA, Dr Christina Lada, is expected to visit UTAS in October this year for a series of lectures and the initiation of collaborative research especially in the area of human nutrition.