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Issue 9
7
July 2015
January
2016
Welcome Address from our Dean
A Happy New Year to you all!
May 2016 bring with it more
successes in your work, be it
academic or administrative,
and happiness in your
personal lives and that of your
families.
Table of Contents
Past Events
2
Publishing, Research and
Presentations
54
Graduations
4
11
Many thanks to Ramona for another
interesting issue.
Announcements
12
I wish you all another fruitful year!
Humour
13
Prof Angela Xuereb
Dean, FHS/Head - Department of Applied Biomedical Science, FHS
Editor’s Note
A warm welcome back to you all after the Christmas recess. Farewell 2015! I have had my
share of ups and downs in 2015 so I’m looking forward to the New Year 2016 – a year that
will most certainly come with lots of challenges,.
May I take this opportunity to thank everyone who contributed to
this newsletter and in all the issues of the year. May I remind you
that the aim of this Newsletter is to help us feel connected and to
keep staff informed about new developments. Please feel free to
bring any comments, suggestions or new stories to my attention for
future editions.
Here’s to a successful and prosperous new year, to you all! We all
know that making New Year resolutions don’t always work but
above all, let us all try to be more positive…
Ms Ramona Cuschieri
Newsletter Editor - FHS
Past Events
Donation for the Paediatric Wards
What is more meaningful in Christmas time than to spread the cheer and help those in
need? During the Faculty Christmas lunch, a charitable collection was organized with
proceeds going to the Paediatric Wards., MDH. The Paediatric team appreciated this
gesture and thanked everyone for their generous contribution of €230 towards the
needs of the sick little children in their care.
Inauguration of automated external defibrillator
The University of Malta was one of the beneficiaries of the “Maratona bir-Roti 2015”
and an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) was donated. AEDs are used to treat
sudden cardiac arrest. This portable device checks the
heart rhythm and is able to send an electric shock to the
heart to try to restore a normal rhythm.
The Health & Safety representatives of the Faculty of
Health Sciences were invited to the inauguration of this
device on Friday 18 December 2015.
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Past Events
Faculty of Health Sciences Christmas Lunch
The Faculty’s Christmas staff lunch was held on Friday 18th December at the Grand
Hotel Excelsior overlooking Marsamxett Harbour. A word of thanks to Doris Briffa
(Dean’s Office) for organizing the event.
Thanks to all who attended, it was a lovely occasion when we all had the chance to
catch up and to enjoy the excellent food and service.
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Past Events
A Visit to James Caterers
As in previous years, the Department of Food Studies and Environmental Health
continued with its programme of ‘industrial visits' for its senior students reading for the
B.Sc.(Hons.) in Applied Food & Nutritional Sciences. The objective of these visits,
organised by Vasilis Valdramidis and Anton Pizzuto, is to expose the students to the
practical world of the Food and Beverage Industry.
The students are usually briefed about the company to be visited and are also required to
write a short report after the visit . The visits are normally led by one of the lecturers and
the tour of the facility is conducted by the technical/ QA manager of the company. This
enables the students to glean relevant information of scientific and technical interest.
So far this semester the students have visited Golden Harvest Ltd (led by VV) and General
Soft Drinks Ltd, James Caterers Ltd and Verdalat (led by AP). It is planned to organise
further visits in the future.
The Department believes that these visits are beneficial in preparing the students not only
in the theoretical component but also exposing them to learning situations of a practical
nature.
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Publishing, Research and Presentations
On 22 October 2015, Dr Rita Pace Parascandalo,
Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Midwifery,
FHS, was awarded a Ph.D from the University of
Central Lancashire UK, after successfully defending
her thesis entitled “Lived realities of NICU-to-home
transition in Malta: The experiences of parents of
preterm infants, and of neonatal staff ”.
Abstract
Preterm birth and the premature infant have been
predominately studied from clinical perspectives. The
Dr Rita Pace Parascandalo
experiences of parenting a preterm child and the experiences
Assistant Lecturer,
of staff directly involved in the care of preterm infants have
Department of Midwifery, FHS
been studied much less.
Additionally, less is known about the meaning of experiences around the preterm infant’s
discharge from the neonatal unit and life at home thereafter. This Heideggerian
hermeneutic phenomenological study aimed to generate a deeper understanding of the
meanings, and lived experiences of NICU-to-home transition from multiple perspectives:
mothers and fathers, and neonatal staff. Using purposive sampling, open interviews were
conducted with mother-father dyads of preterm infants, and neonatal staff that included
midwives, nurses and doctors working on the only neonatal unit in Malta. A longitudinal
design was adopted for data collection from the parents: at 1 month, 3 months and 6
months after discharge of their baby from the unit. The research process including analysis
of the data was guided by van Manen (1990).
The parents’ experiences of NICU-to-home transition are represented through four main
themes, while three main themes emerged from the staff data. Findings indicate that, in the
longer term in the home setting, parents translated their parenting approaches through
the norms of neonatal unit routines and practices. Staff findings revealed that care focuses
primarily on producing technically prepared parents in infant care which arises out of their
sense of responsibility towards the babies’ wellbeing that extends to after being discharged
from the neonatal unit. A further in-depth interpretation and synthesis of the findings
drawing on the philosophy of Heidegger (1962) was one. ‘Oscillating realities’ between
parents’ and staff experiences were revealed, particularly in the degree to which they
endeavoured to be ‘authentic’ or settled for ‘inauthenticity’, and
the extent to which technocratic ways of Being permeated
their relationships to each other and to the babies. Notable
implications for practice and suggestions for further research
emerged from this study.
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Publishing, Research and Presentations
On 28 October 2015, Dr Mark Borg, Lecturer in the
Department of Medical Physics, FHS, was awarded a
Ph.D from the University University College London,
after successfully defending his thesis entitled "The use
of a figure-of-merit(FOM) for optimization in digital
mammography: an exploratory study in Malta" .
Abstract
Dr Mark Borg
Lecturer, Department of
Medical Physics, FHS
This PhD thesis comprises an exploratory study in digital
mammography physics that portrays two essential
components.
The first component (1) presents the first national survey of
the technical performance of mammography equipment in
Malta using the European Protocol [1-3]. This demonstrated considerable differences in
the technical performance of the mammography units across the country with a wide
range in performance, patient dose and image quality. A common problem was that many
clinics had implemented computed radiography (CR) systems to replace existing filmscreen (FS) systems without due consideration to optimization. All direct digital (DR)
mammography units met current international technical performance standards and the
effectiveness of DR mammography in reducing patient dose and maintaining high image
quality compared to CR has been confirmed.
The second component (2) was to explore the use of a figure-of-merit (FOM) for
optimization and characterisation in digital mammography. The use of image quality
parameters in digital mammography such as contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) or signaldifference-to-noise ratio (SDNR), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and detective quantum
efficiency (DQE) have been traditionally used for the quantitative evaluation of the system
performance against international standards or guidelines.
The use of FOMs is relatively new and may be considered as a new quality assurance tool
in digital mammography permitting the quantitative and simultaneous assessment of image
quality and patient dose. The main objective in having a FOM is to have a numerical
expression representing the efficiency and efficacy of a given system gauging how good or
poor a system is performing. This may be useful in optimization
and in predicting a predetermined or expected image quality
with a given amount of radiation dose for a given system. The
most interesting aspect of the FOMs in this work will be to
investigate and explore the possibility for inter-system
comparison.
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Publishing, Research and Presentations
A presentation of the following paper took place at the 22nd EurOMA
Conference: Operations Management for Sustainable Competitiveness,
Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
Tomaselli, G., Garg, L., Gupta,V., Xuereb, P., Buttigieg, S. C., &Vassallo, P. (2015)
Traditional vs. interactive technologies for Corporate Social Responsibility
communication in health care: A study in Malta and India
ABSTRACT
Prof S. Buttigieg
Head, Department of Health
Services Management, FHS
This work aims to understand the importance of Corporate
Social Responsibility (CSR) in the health care sector and
investigates the use of traditional and interactive technologies
for health care organizations’ CSR communication strategies.
Based on a quantitative research methodology, we examine and
compare CSR communication between two countries, namely
Malta and India, which are characterized by very different
contexts. The study shows that in both countries, CSR is
perceived to be of medium to high importance and that health
care organizations need to be more aware of the importance
to communicate CSR activities through the use of interactive
technologies.
Department of Medical Physics leads the Development of
Educational Curricula for Medical Physicists in Europe
Prof. Carmel J. Caruana, Head of the Department of
Medical Physics of the Faculty of Health Sciences,
University of Malta, is first author of the latest Policy
Statement on Education and Training of Medical
Physicists in Europe.
Prof C. J. Caruana
Head, Department of Medical
Physics, FHS
In his position as Chairperson of the Education and
Training Committee of the European Federation of
Organizations for Medical Physics, Prof. Caruana led the
modernization of the curriculum for Education and
Training of members of this healthcare profession in
Europe. Download the policy statement.
The MSc Medical Physics of the University of Malta is
the first MSc Medical Physics in Europe to follow these recommendations.
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Publishing, Research and Presentations
Millan-Sango D., Hanb L., Milosavljevic V., Van Impec J.F., Bourke P., Cullenb P.J., and V.P.
Valdramidis (2015)
Assessing bacterial recovery and efficacy of cold atmospheric plasma
treatments, published in Journal of Food and Bioproducts Processing , Vol 96,
pp154-160.
ABSTRACT
Dr Vasilis Valdramidis
Senior Lecturer, Dept. of Food
Studies & Environmental Health, FHS
Mr David Millan Sango
Research Support Officer, Dept. of
Food Studies & Env. Health, FHS
Cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) is a non-thermal
decontamination technology capable ofgenerating groups
of antimicrobial agents including; photons, electrons,
positively andnegatively charged ions, atoms, free radicals
and excited or non-excited molecules. CAPtreatments
(70 kV, 50 Hz) at different times (i.e. 15, 30, 60, 90 s) were
applied to a broth sys-tem inoculated either with
Escherichia coli NCTC 12900, E. coli ME 9062 or E. coli
knockoutmutants of soxS, rpoS and dnaK genes. Optical
emission spectra were performed and themain
antimicrobial reactive substances generated by CAP
treatments were found to be N2,N2+, NO, H and He.
After treatments, reduction levels of the studied bacteria
were up to0.5 log CFU/mL, no showing statistical
differences. Moreover, the kinetic growth parameterswere
calculated by applying the 2-fold dilution method.
maxdecreased in all bacteria whenthe time of CAP
treatment increased. E. coli dnaK was the most sensitive
mutant to plasma,showing no recovery after CAP of 60
and 90 s. In addition, CAP challenge test treatmentswere
applied on butter head lettuce inoculated with E. coli
NCTC 12900 with CAP treatmentsof 60 and 90 s
reducing bacteria levels by more than 1.5 log CFU/cm2.
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Publishing, Research and Presentations
Sammut J., Scerri J. and Borg Xuereb, R (2015)
The Lived Experience of Adults with Ulcerative
Colitis, published in Journal of Clinical Nursing, Vol 24,
pp2659-2667. http://.doi:10.1111/jocn.12892
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to explore the
experiences of adults living with ulcerative colitis.
Research to date has focused on the impact of
inflammatory bowel disease, by analysing the
responses of persons with ulcerative colitis and
crohn’s disease collectively. This paper addresses the
dearth in literature by exploring the experiences of
adults living with ulcerative colitis.
Ms Jacqueline Sammut
Casual Lecturer,
Department of Nursing, FHS
An exploratory qualitative phenomenological design
was used.
Semi-structured interviews were
conducted with a purposive sample of 10 adults with
ulcerative colitis. Verbatim transcripts were analysed
using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis.
Three super-ordinate themes emerged from the
analysis: ‘living with physical discomfort’, ‘emotional
turmoil in living the experience’ and ‘social
interactions’.
The participants’ described a fundamental change in
their lifestyle, as a result of physical discomfort and
emotional turmoil. Misconceptions held regarding the
causes of their disease, further compounded their
negative emotional experience.
Relevance to clinical practice: It is of importance that
healthcare professionals understand and explore the
unique perspectives of individuals with ulcerative
colitis. These perspectives relate to both physical and
psychosocial issues. The needs and concerns of
persons with ulcerative colitis can then guide the
formulation and development of an individualised care
plan.
Dr Josianne Scerri
Senior Lecturer,
Department of Mental Health, FHS
Dr Rita Borg Xuereb
Head, Department of Midwifery,
FHS
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Publishing, Research and Presentations
Malta Community Chest Fund supports research in
Osteoporosis
The Malta Community Chest Fund signed an agreement with University of
Malta through the Research Trust (RIDT) that will finance a research project in
the genetics of osteoporosis and fractures in Malta. This silent bone disease is
characterised by low bone mass and reduced bone strength, leading to
increased brittleness and fracture risk, which effects around 20% of women and
6% of men aged 50 years and older.
On-going research currently being performed at the Faculty of Health Sciences
at the University of Malta is led by Prof. Angela Xuereb. During the press
conference, the President of Malta, H.E. Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca said that
this research will investigate into genotyping of new gene variants in order to
increase the list of potential genes which could be used in the diagnosis of
susceptible individuals. Researchers will be working with Maltese families with a
family history of osteoporosis, with the aim of identifying potentially new genes
contributing to the disease.
“One of the main factors leading to this condition is the genetic
disposition of individuals. In this regard research shows that Malta has a
high incidence rate. It is estimated that the effects of this condition
cost the Government around 17 million euros every year, in particular
in interventions which require hip replacement”.
The President further explained that this figure is expected to rise due
to the increasing aging population which leads to more potential patients
suffering from osteoporosis.
Given this scenario, the Faculty of Health Sciences within the University of
Malta in collaboration with major European research centres, has been
investigating for a number of years the causes for this high incidence in the
Maltese population. Through this agreement, the Malta Community Chest
Fund will be donating €38,000, in support of this important research and to
continue the investigations.
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Publishing, Research and Presentations
11
Announcements
Happy Retirement to Ms Bertha
Darmanin
Academic and administrative members gathered last
month to bid Bertha farewell. Bertha retired after
many years dedicated to the Faculty of Health
Sciences and previously the IHC. Bertha was
secretary to the Department of Health Services
Management and of FREC.
Good Luck Bertha, enjoy this new journey of your
life, cherish every moment and have fun!
Academic Promotions
At the Council meeting of the 9 October 2015:
Dr Daniela Gatt – Department of Communication Therapy, FHS was promoted
to Senior Lecturer
At the Council meeting of the 13 November 2015:
Dr Mark Borg – Department of Medical Physics, FHS was promoted to
Lecturer
New FHS Recruits
A warm welcome to:
Mr Alexei Sammut has been appointed assistant lecturer within the
Department of Mental Health, FHS. Mr Sammut can be contacted by e-mail:
alexei.sammut@um.edu.mt; Office No. 59.
Ms Marie Claire Stock has been appointed clerk within the Department of
Health Services Management, FHS. Ms Stock can be contacted by e-mail:
marie.c.stock@um.edu.mt; Tel: 2340 1576; Office No. 6.
Welcome Back!
Kelly we are all happy that you're back from your maternity leave..
Congratulations on the birth of your adorable baby girl! We’re glad you had
the opportunity to spend these past few months home with her. Kelly from
the Department of Nursing
can be contacted
by
e-mail:
kelly.grech@um.edu.mt; Tel: 2340 1827; Office No. 30.
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Humour
13
Riddle Me This!
Riddle 1
What is so fragile that when you say its name you break it?
Riddle 2
I have a tail, and I have a head, but I have no body. I am NOT a snake.
What am I?
Riddle 3
What has 4 wheels and flies?
Riddle 4
What goes around the world but stays in a
corner?
Riddle 5
What can you catch but not throw?
Answer 1: Silence, Answer 2: A coin, Answer 3: A garbage truck, Answer 4: A stamp, Answer 5: A cold.