HISTORY OF SPICES
SPICES has a long and winding journey from only an idea in 1993 to the physical space's development in 2021. The Head of the pathology department at that time, Professor Dr Nor Hayati Othman [NHO] had a vision, that School of Medical Sciences USM like any other established medical school around the world, needed an excellent comprehensive pathology museum that acts as an antrum for Medical School where students could come anytime to learn about diseases by examining resected organs removed from patients. She scouted for suitable space in campus and could not find one; thus, she decided to have the department's foyer as the place for Pathology Museum. The students liked it as it was near to the pathologists who taught them pathology; however, there was a problem... public and lay people were afraid to come to the department!
Pathology Museum was in Pathology Department from 1993 to 1998, then moved to be temporarily placed on the ground floor, also termed the basement of the Medical Library [Perpustakaan Hamdan Tahir] [Figure 1]. While being there, it received many visitors, mainly schoolchildren who were excited to see pathology specimens! However, since it is a distance away from medical School and located in the basement where the ventilation could have been more optimal, only a few students liked to go there nor enjoyed being there to learn.
Each time when we were audited by the Malaysian Qualifying Agency [MQA] and Malaysian Medical Council [MMC] to maintain our accreditation status under MQA/MMC, we quickly 'created' ad-hoc Pathology Museum [under MQA/MMC rule, it is a must for all medical School to have Pathology Museum].
In 2014, a fresh consideration was to have a permanent Pathology Museum. NHO had several discussions with several parties in search of a suitable space. Among possible areas were Dataran Merah, Dataran Kelabu, the old Medical Education Department, or building a new block for it.
Meanwhile, our Pathology Museum remained in the basement of the Medical Library. 2015 we had to vacate the space as the library wanted to have it back for expansion. Pathology Museum became homeless! …
Figure 1: Pathology Museum in the basement/ground floor of Perpustakaan Hamdan Tahir
Meanwhile, in 2012 the 5th Dean of PPSP then, Prof Aziz Baba, led a delegation to Taiwan, on invitation by Hospice/Palliative Care & Bioethics in ASEAN, to National Taiwan University (NTU). They were introduced to NTU Medical Museum of Humanities and its digital platform there. The visit sparked an idea to Associate Prof Dr. Muzaimi Mustapha [MM], who went along to roll a pilot on digital content for a digital medical museum. He worked with a group of medical students as part of their Community and Family Case Studies [CFCS] project. CFCS is one of our medical school's core curriculum, and this program is unique to our School.
Throughout 2013 and 2014, the 6th PPSP Dean, Prof Ahmad Sukari Halim [ASH], as part of the continuity to support CFCS projects, asked MM to make a proposal to University for the USM Digital Museum of Life - to build the digital and animated media on selected medical and health topics. The funding was to be under the PPSP KPI Incentive. The proposal was accepted. The effort for the CFCS projects has led to a collaboration with academics and students of Fakulti Teknologi Kreatif & Warisan, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK). The idea was to merge art-based students at their Faculty with our medical students for digital media collaboration. This PPSP KPI Incentive project was parked under PPSP Bahagian Jaringan Industri dan Masyarakat [BJIM] Deputy Dean’s Office, at that time, Prof Colonel [Retired] Wan Pauzi Wan Ibrahim.
Around 2015 – 2016, when the 7th Dean, Professor Shaiful Bahari Ismail was helming PPSP and BJIM Deputy Dean Office was under Professor Din Suhaimi, PPSP initiated a project called 'NADI@USM and PPSP Gallery' for which MM was made to lead the task force. He [MM] roped in USM School of Housing
& Building Design (HBP) team to advise the team on the project. Together with Jabatan Pembangunan of USM, a preliminary location was identified at Dataran Kelabu, and the plan was put on the table. The planning was to secure funding from USM to match another local funding. At this juncture, Professor Datuk Wan Muhammad, who at that time was Clinical Trial Unit [CTU] head, donated 150K on behalf of CTU for this purpose [Figure 2]. Although PPSP received some monetary contributions for the NADI@USM project, the quantum was not enough to move the agenda further then.
Figure 2: Letter from the coordinator of CTU to PPSP donating 150K for teaching-learning purposes
In 2018, the medical school dean, Professor Shaiful Bahari Ismail, officially appointed Professor Dr Nor Hayati Othman again to lead a task force to ensure the establishment of the Medical Museum, a new name for its expanded purpose other than Pathology Museum. There will also be teaching-learning exhibits from other departments in this space. By now, she was four-years post mandatory retirement in 2014. Together with Associate Professor Dr. Sharifah Emilia Tuan Sharif (SETS), the head of the pathology department, they negotiated for space behind the Anatomy Museum as a suitable place for it. The availability of the space was discussed and approved by the Anatomy department in principle. They immediately recruited Mr. Syahmir bin Mansor, an architect and his assistant Mr. Zulhakimi Bin Zulkainain of Pembangunan team on adviced by Madam Rozilah binti Hamzah, the Chief Engineer and Head of Quality Technical Manager to draft the design [see figure 3]. The design must be somewhat seamless with the existing Anatomy Museum as there would be no wall separating the two museums, and it will be renamed Muzium Perubatan.
Figure 3: The design of Museum Perubatan to be located behind the existing Anatomy Museum
The estimated cost calculated was 350K. The design was presented by SETS to School Board in October 2018 and approved. Not long after the School Board, a few members of the Anatomy Department requested for re-consideration in taking the space behind Anatomy Museum. After much negotiation and re-exploration of possible space that is suitable, Multi-Disciplinary Lab 4 [MDL4] was chosen and approved by School Board #163 on 21st May 2019 [Figure 4].
Figure 4: The extraction of the minute of The School Board on 21 May 2019
NHO and SETS recruited Mr. Syahmir and his team again to work on the design [Figure 5-6]. MDL4 has a space of 6440 square feet, more than twice the space behind the Anatomy Museum. Understandingly would cost more than the original budget made available by Medical School through the Enterprise account. The cost of this museum was calculated to be around 860K and was tabled it to the Dean and his exco.
Figures 5 & 6: The initial design of the layout of the Medical Museum in MDL4
On discussion with his exco, the dean decided to ask NHO and team if the cost could be reduced. Thus, we went back to drawing board. This time, we intended to re-purpose those items already available in MDL4 making minimal structural changes to save cost. We asked PPSP graphic artist Mr. Zafrul Alam, if he could design for us re-purposed laboratory tables as display specimen racks [Figure 7].
Figure 7: The planned re-purpose multidisciplinary lab as pathology museum and the original MDL4 bench tables on the right
The cost of this design was ~350K, about the amount approved initially for this museum. We tabled this to the Dean and he submitted to vice-chancellor for approval. By the time of submission for approval, USM was under a new Vice-Chancellor, Professor Datuk Faisal Rafiq Mahamd Adikan. He has recruited Associate Professor Hasnul Jamal Bin Saidon, a lecturer of Pusat Pengajian Seni at that time to help design the museum. He [VC] wanted the would-be museum to be an interactive gallery, state- of-the-art space, with marriage of the science and arts in Medicine. He approved the budget to be around 1.2 million initially.
In February 2020, Covid19 arrived in Malaysia. In March to June of that year, the country was under Movement Control Order to curb infection. Most non-emergency activities were halted, deferred, or slowed down.
On 11th August 2020 the first meeting between staff of Pusat Pengajian Seni, Pusat Pengajian Sains Perubatan and Bahagian Pembangunan USM took place at School of Medical Sciences. NHO made a presentation to the guests from main campus on "Our Journey to have Muzium Perubatan in PPSP:1993-2020" [Figure 8]. At the end of the presentation, she tabled the options to the group; option A-to keep the 1st plan that cost around 850K, hire an indoor decorator to make the appearance fancier and include interactive digital content or Option B- to completely redesign the whole place, bearing in mind the philosophy of Medical School, in which the teaching learning is integrated, systematic and spiral. It was a historic meeting because on this date SPICES was born!
Figure 8: The 1st brainstorming session between School of Medical Sciences, School of Fine Arts, Muzium & Galeri Tuanku Fauziah, Bahagian Pembangunan USM on 11th August 2020 . It was in this meeting that SPICES was born!
At the subsequent meeting, on 24th September, AP Hasnul presented his SPICES designs. It was a one- day long discussion, followed by visit to MDL4 so that the design could be further improved, and we could imagine SPICES in its place. [Figure 9].
Figure 9: Some of SPICES committee members who attended the 2nd meeting. Seen here from left to right are En.Afzanizam Bin Mohd Ali, En.Zulhakimi Bin Zulkainain, Prof Dr Kamaruddin Jaalam, Cik W.Zalawati Binti Mohd Noor, Assoc Prof Dr.Sharifah Emilia Binti Tuan Sharif, Prof Dr Rosline Hassan, Prof Dr Nor Hayati Othman, Assoc Prof Hasnul Jamal Bin Saidon, Prof Dr Wan Hazabah Wan Hitam, En Hanafi Bin Ismail, En Azwan Bin Hazmi, En Ahmad Syahmir Bin Mansor, En En.Asri Bin Akhiar
Few more physical and virtual meetings between team from Penang and team from Kelantan took place before the design was finalised. The design model [made by students] was shown to the Vice- Chancellor for approval on 15th of October 2020 [Figure 10]
Figure 10: From top clockwise; students with AP Hasnul looking at the completed SPICES model before making their way to see Vice Chancellor's [VC] office. VC Professor Faisal Rafiq Mahamd Adikan, partially standing is examining at the model keenly. Bottom photo showed VC scribbling on the letter written by AP Hasnul to him regarding SPICES. Mr En.Afzanizam Bin Mohd Ali [museum curator] and AP Hasnul were in attendance.
NHO received the good news on whatsapp from AP Hasnul [Figure 11]. Based on the scribble date by VC the approval of SPICES. The date of approval was the same date when the meeting between VC and AP Hasnul took place; 15th October 2020. He directed key personnel of Health Campus, Prof Sukari Abdul Halim [Campus Director], Prof Shaiful Bahari Ismail [Dean of PPSP] and En. Engku Nazli bin Engku Mohd Ariffin of Development office take charge immediately because he wanted the project to be completed by June 2021.
Figure 10: The scribble notes by VC indicating that he had approved the project and wanted key personnel to take charge immediately
Meanwhile, the situation of Covid19 infection has not subsided and staff of both campuses mainly work from home. It took a long while to get the official approval letter and the amount approved and that came on a letter from Treasury department dated 9th June 2021 [Figure 12], 8 months after the project was tentatively approved.
Figure 12: The official approval letter from Treasury of USM stating the amount approved(infrastructure)
Subsequently, when the costing was detailed out on the specifications of the design, it was noted that inclusive of digital content of this interactive gallery, further budget was needed and final sum of 2.45M (infrastructure , technical and digital contents) was allocated for SPICES in a minute of meeting chaired by VC on 24 November 2020.
On 22nd March 2021, Vice Chancellor, paid a surprise visit to MDL4 unaccompanied by any representatives from Medical School nor from the SPICES organizing committee [Figure 13]. This initiative gave Pathology Department a boost indicating that VC himself wants works on SPICES to happen very soon.
Figure 13: The VC inspecting the space for SPICES
Meanwhile on the same day but at Pathology department another important milestone took place. The team from Main Campus, headed by Associate Prof Hasnul handed over SPICES model to Professor Dr Nor Hayati, the coordinator of SPICES [Figure 14].
Figure 14: Handing over SPICES model by AP Hasnul to Prof Nor Hayati, witnessed by Dr Nor Azman [from Orthopaedic department] on the left and AP Sharifah Emilia [holding the roof of SPICES].
Stimulated by the surprise visit by VC, Pathology department under the current head, Associate Professor Sharifah Emilia Tuan Sharif recruited few pathology staff, together with the help of Dr Nor Azman Mat Zin from Orthopaedic department [PPSP expert on virtual reality], set up ‘Mock Spices’. This event took place on 23rd March 2021[Figures 15-17].
Figure 15: ‘Mock SPICES’ - the front façade of MDL4, awaited the arrival of VC
Figure 16: Associate Professor Sharifah Emilia gave a briefing to VC regarding SPICES, observed by Dean [Professor Shaiful Bahari], deputy [Professor Rosline] and several others
Figure 17: Dr Nor Azman showing VC what augmented reality would look like
The journey of making a Medical Museum in School of Medical Sciences was indeed a long one. Those were the activities en route which we thought were relevant to be recorded on this journey. We now wait for the beginning of a new chapter – the reality of SPICES.
The virtual ground breaking ceremony was done by Vice-Chancellor on 18th August 2021 via Webex virtual platform [Figure 18] . The expected date of completion is March 26th 2022.
Figure 18: The virtual 'ground breaking ceremony' by the Vice chancellor on 18th August 2021
