The USK Faculty of Medicine team passed the 2019 SIMPIC participant selection in Thailand

The Syiah Kuala University Faculty of Medicine team successfully passed the SIMPIC (Siriraj International Medical Microbiology, Parasitology, and Immunology Competition) qualification selection in 2019.

This year is the second participation by the Unsyiah Faculty of Medicine team in this prestigious international competition. SIMPIC 2019 is the eighth SIMPIC held by the Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, Thailand.

The selection of qualifications is based on the assessment of each team's essay and motivation letter. In this competition, participants were asked to write a 1000 word essay on health issues related to infection. This time the health issue is about the Zika virus outbreak linked to the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, and how it is likely to happen again at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.

This problem requires candidate participants to seek the best infection prevention system in order to avoid infection in a crowd (mass gathering).

Alhamdulillah, the Unsyiah Faculty of Medicine team was one of 55 teams from various countries who passed and were entitled to take part in the competition.

SIMPIC 2019 was participated by several countries such as, Indonesia (16 teams), Malaysia (5 teams), Thailand (21 teams), China (3 teams), Japan (1 team), Bangladesh (3 teams), Taiwan (1 team), India (1 team), England (1 team), Mongolia (1 team), Philippines (1 team) and Cambodia (1 team).

Besides Syiah Kuala University, there are a number of other teams from Indonesia, namely Diponegoro University, Atma Jaya University, Islamic University of Indonesia, Gadjah Mada University, University of Indonesia, Lambung Mangkurat University, Mulawarman University, Padjadjaran University, Sebelas Maret University, North Sumatra University, and Lampung University.

Overseas universities that have also successfully passed include Osaka Medical College (Japan), University of Glasgow (England), De La Salle Medical and Health Science Institute (Philippines), and many others, even the host of SIMPIC itself, Mahidol University. The Unsyiah Faculty of Medicine team delegation consisted of Putri Nabillah Mulya, Klarina Elsa Siti Sarah, Raisha Fathima, and Risma Zulia.

The Unsyiah Faculty of Medicine team has started intensive training under the guidance of dr. Tristia Rinanda, M.Si, teaching staff of the Microbiology Section of the Unsyiah Faculty of Medicine. SIMPIC 2019 will be held on 15 – 18 March 2019.

This competition will be packed with individual knowledge tests using the Computer Based Test system, followed by case questions that are done in groups. Around 30 teams with the highest scores will return to compete with a smart system to reach the final stage.

This competition requires in-depth skills, both individually and in teams, to understand the fields of science being contested, namely microbiology, parasitology, and immunology, as well as team cohesiveness.

Hopefully the Unsyiah Faculty of Medicine delegation can make the name of Syiah Kuala University and Indonesia proud in this international event. Amen ya Rabbal Alamin.