Page 11 - THE DECADES-LONG QA ODYSSEY Celebrating the 10th National QA Convention 2019

MESSAGE

Making quality assurance and improvement as part of our work culture has not been an easy endeavour, requiring
years of training, encouragement, empowerment and hard work. Whether they be a localised departmental Quality
Assurance/Quality Improvement (QA/QI) study or a multicentre national level quality research project, all these
efforts have certainly made remarkable contributions to the improvement of the quality of our healthcare services.

Giving due recognition to all these efforts at a national-level event is indeed a special acknowledgement of our frontline
providers’ dedication to excellence and continuous improvement, which are central to the ethos of professionalism
that all of us as professionals cherish and uphold wholeheartedly. For decades, the biennial National QA Convention

has truly occupied a special place in the hearts of all quality players in our ministry. Year after year, the quality of
projects presented at the National QA Convention has improved substantially and we take pride in elevating and
taking some of the commendable projects from the Convention to the policy level by replicating the initiatives
nationally.

There are many lessons that we can learn from the decades-long QA odyssey, be they in terms of our training
methods and tools, or our efforts in bringing the best practices to policy. More invention and advancement need to
be undertaken by the main players of QAP in Malaysia for us to stay relevant in the ever-changing health system.

This year marks the 10th iteration of National QA Convention, which has had a glorious history since its inception
in 2001. This publication acts as a repository or a time capsule, engraving or etching the memories and knowledge
gained throughout this significant odyssey, to be passed down and proudly cherished by the next generation of QA/
QI practitioners. While champions come and go, the memories and knowledge preserved in this publication will
DIRECTOR certainly live on. This publication will hopefully serve to remind us of the lessons to be learnt from this journey. It

INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH SYSTEMS may not be filled with elaborate details, but is comprehensive enough to mark the notable milestones and memories.

RESEARCH (IHSR) This is not merely a narrative of the past, but a chronicle for us to decipher the present and shape the future. Kudos
Dr. Nor Izzah Hj. Ahmad Shauki to the team that painstakingly put the pieces together in making this book a reality!

Dr. Nor Izzah binti Hj. Ahmad Shauki
Director

3 Institute for Health Systems Research (IHSR) 4
National Institute of Health