Dr KhairiyahbtAbdMuttalib BDS (Bristol), DPHDent (Sydney) Principal Director of Oral Health, Ministry of Health Malaysia Dr KhairiyahAbdMuttalib is the Principal Director of Oral Health, Ministry of Health Malaysia (MOH). She is a gazetted Dental Public Health Specialist and serves as Registrar of the Malaysian Dental Council. She

has been involved in seven national surveys, five as national co-ordinator, principal investigator of various studies, author/co-author of several national survey reports, policy documents, WHO and MOH documents, programme guidelines and other documents on oral healthcare in Malaysia. She is a member of the Malaysian Dental Association, Chairman of the Joint Technical Committee on Accreditation of Dental Degree Programmes, Chairman of the National Oral Health Research Initiative, Chairman of the Executive Committee for the National Oral Health Plan 2011-2020, Member of the College of Dental Specialists and Academy of Medicine Malaysia, member of the Specialist Subcommittee for Dental Public Health and member of the newly-formed

Conjoint Board for Dental Postgraduate Education. Focus of the moment are on human resource projections for oral health, cost studies for dental procedures, development of MOH dental specialist services, legislation and regulation on the practice of dentistry in Malaysia, issues of liberalisation and globalisation, especially within ASEAN, and oversight on health, safety and quality in dentistry. She is a member of many committees at central level of the MOH.

Lecture:

Quality Perspectives In Dentistry : Malaysia

The functions of the Malaysian Dental Council (MDC)include ensuring quality standards in the practice of dentistry, hence, the Regulations, the Code of Professional Conduct and Standing Orders on Disciplinary Proceedings to name a few. The Ministry of Health Malaysia (MOH) has had a Quality AssuranceProgramme since the early 1980s. Increasingly the MOH is involved in issues of quality of processes and outcomes - in dental education, in oral health research, in National Oral Health Plan Goals and Key Performance Indicators that cover performance, budget and expenditure and outcomes. Standards and criteria have been established for public sector facilities, dental officers undertake surveillance on standards of practicein private sector clinics under the Private HealthcareFacilities and Services Act 1998 (PHFSA 98) anddentistry must comply with standards for safety and health for medical devices. Dental specialities will increasingly be vetted under the Specialist Sub Committees; there is dilemma on how to proceed to ensure quality of students who leave the country to train in dentistry and the quality of returning graduates. The quality framework agenda has no

end and is constantly evolving. This presentation seeks to discuss the inevitable that faces dental professionals in the MOHand in the country.