Sunway Clinical Research Centre will be launched with the collaboration of the University of Cambridge and the Jeffrey Cheah Foundation
The University of Cambridge has signed several agreements with Sunway Medical Centre, and the Jeffrey Cheah Foundation that mark the 800-year-old world-renowned university’s first such entry into Asia, and first of its collaborations of this kind in the world.
As part of the collaboration, Sunway Medical Centre will establish the Sunway Clinical Research Centre, which will be a Regional Site Partner of the University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine.
Malaysia’s Minister of Health, YB Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam, commemorated the establishment of the Centre at a ceremony held today at Sunway University, follwing the opening of the two-day 2nd Cambridge-Oxford-Sunway Biomedical Symposium.
“Cambridge University’s decision to collaborate with us further testifies to Sunway’s commitment to excellence and to giving back to society,” said Sunway Group founder and chairman Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Dr Jeffrey Cheah AO, who is also founding trustee of the Jeffrey Cheah Foundation.
“At Sunway, we are determined to raise standards in healthcare and education, providing the best possible to not just Malaysians, but the 630 million-strong population of the ASEAN region. Making people’s lives better is fundamental to what we do here, because we’re passionate about sustainable development,” he added.
The University of Cambridge Vice-Chancellor Professor Stephen Toope OC, welcomed the partnership, saying; “The agreements we have signed with the Jeffrey Cheah Foundation and Sunway Medical Centre mark the beginning of a new stage in an exceptional partnership. Working together, Cambridge University, the Jeffrey Cheah Foundation and Sunway Medical Centre are poised to make a signal contribution to some of the world’s major medical challenges.”
Professor Patrick Maxwell, Regius Professor of Physic and Head of the School of Clinical Medicine, said; “As the world of medicine changes more rapidly than perhaps ever before, it is clear that collaboration will be the key to success. For this reason, I am delighted that we are entering into a new collaboration with Sunway, an institution which shares our unswerving commitment to excellence in medicine and medical education.”
The collaboration agreements between the Jeffrey Cheah Foundation and Sunway Medical Centre in Malaysia, the University of Cambridge, and Royal Papworth Hospital, will establish a joint programme between the University’s School of Clinical Medicine, and Sunway Medical Centre, Jeffrey Cheah School of Medicine and Health Sciences, and Sunway University. The programme will enable the sharing of academic excellence through regular academic visits and exchanges, and offer scientific and clinical training opportunities at Cambridge for outstanding postgraduates from Sunway.
This collaboration will also see researchers from the two countries working together across borders and disciplinary divides to tackle some of the world’s major health challenges and raise the standards of healthcare in Malaysia and Asia.
The Sunway Clinical Research Centre, led from Cambridge, will help develop an integrated approach to healthcare, clinical trials and research in Malaysia aimed at prevention, earlier diagnosis and improved treatments for a range of disease entities, that are suited to the Asian genetic composition.
Tan Sri Dr Jeffrey Cheah noted that Sunway is the best place for Cambridge to establish the Clinical Research Centre as Malaysia is the melting pot of ethnicities, racial groups and cultures.
An allocation of £5 million (RM27.5 million) will be set aside for projects and research arising from these collaborations for the next decade.
The signed agreements also allow for Sunway Medical Centre to collaborate with two of the hospitals who are part of the Cambridge University Health Partners, namely the world renowned Royal Papworth Hospital and Adden brooke’s Hospital.
Tan Sri Dr Jeffrey Cheah was in Cambridge on October 18 to sign the agreements between the University and the Jeffrey Cheah Foundation. Tan Sri Cheah is a long-standing supporter of Collegiate Cambridge, member of the University’s Guild of Benefactors, and Fellow Benefactor of Gonville and Caius College.
The signing is an extension of Sunway’s relationship with the University of Cambridge, which began in 2014 with the establishment of two Jeffrey Cheah Professorial Fellowships in Gonville and Caius, one of the most distinguished of Cambridge’s 31 Colleges.
The links with Cambridge continue to evolve. Earlier this year, Sunway Medical, Sunway University and the Jeffrey Cheah School of Medicine and Health Sciences hosted the annual training seminar of the International Society for Cardiovascular Epidemiology and Prevention (ISCEP), an independent NGO under the umbrella of the World Heart Federation
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