UNAIR NEWS – Faculty of Medicine Universitas Airlangga prove their reputation once more as the expert in holding national level scientific championships. Not only the competition of Medspin (Medical Science and Application Competition) which is previously known internationally, recently through the Physiology Department they also succeeded in holding a Physiology Olympiad entitled Indonesian Medical Physiology Olympiad (IMPhO) which is also of national level. It was so successful that the participants’ enthusiasm was irresistible.
“The number of IMPhO participants is much more than what we have expected,” said Kristanti Wanito Wigati, dr., M.Si., the event section of the committee, at the Hall of Grha BIK-IPTEKDOK FK Building, Tuesday (14/2).
The committee had no choice but to limit the number of participants because of the limited capacity. Therefore there were only 141 students registered in 22 faculties of medicine at public and private universities in Indonesia who finally competed for champion in the event. They came from regions like Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya, Pekanbaru, Lampung, to Banjarmasin.
The competition lasted for two days, 10-11 February 2017. The 141 participants were grouped into 35 teams. They competed though written test and quiz. The participants also challenged each other’s knowledge about physiology and interacted in English.
“From those 35 teams we will select 12 teams to be the best. The First Winner will have the right to get access to participate in IMSPQ (International Medical School Physiology Quiz) 2017 in Malaysia,” Kristanti added.
Finally, the First and Second Winner were achieved by teams from FK University of Indonesia (FK-UI), while the Third Winner was earned by home team Faculty of Medicine Universitas Airlangga.
Kristanti explained that this event was an affiliation result between FK UNAIR and international level IMPhO which was introduced by Prof. Cheng Hwee Ming from Malaysia.
“We see that there is no national level version of the competition. In fact it has been known in international level prior to this one. Therefore we initiate to hold a similar event for national level. Even the materials in question are also a collaboration result between our team and Mr. Cheng,” Kristanti continued.
The holding of international level IMPhO has been going on for 14 years. Every year international IMPhO is participated by a lot of medical students from different countries. Considering its reputation, she finds physiology important in medical science since it is the basic knowledge. Physiology is one of basic knowledge in medical science which has to be mastered by every FK student. This study learns about human body mechanism from head to toe.
“Because there are so many things to learn, it is necessary to do innovation or invent a way to deliver physiology so that it will be more fun to learn this. A means for that can be a quiz so the participants will be motivated to learn,” she added.
Besides Olympiad, IMPhO also held physiology educational group discussion for lecturers who escorted the participants. The topic was “Physiology Learning Output and How to Arrange in Integrated Block System,” which was also conducted at FK UNAIR.
“So besides the competition, we hope this event will foster a closer relationship, maintain connections and friendships between lecturers and medical students. We hope in the future other universities in Indonesia will be able to participate,” she said.
The IMPhO 2017 event was officially opened by the Dean of FK UNAIR Prof. Dr. dr. Soetojo, Sp.U (K) and honored with his presence the quizmaster and founder of IMPhO Prof. Cheng Hwee Ming.
Considering the impressive response from the participants, Prof. Cheng Hwee Ming proposed IMPhO to be an annual event and the Faculty of Medicine Universitas Airlangga as the host/committee. (*)
Author: Sefya Hayu Istighfaricha
Editor: Bambang Bes
