Chief Minister of the State of Johor, YAB Dato' Haji Abdul Ghani Othman, signing the commemorative plaque at the launch of the South East Asia Community Observatory, last year. With him is Jeffrey Cheah School of Medicine and Health Sciences Head Prof Dato' Dr Anuar Zaini Md Zain.

The health and demographic surveillance system (DHSS) pioneered by Monash University Sunway campus’ South East Asia Community Observatory (SEACO) is seeking academic partners to contribute to this growing multi-disciplinary effort.

“SEACO presents an excellent opportunity for academics within the University to engage in research, not just in the health aspects but in other areas,” SEACO Director Professor Dr Daniel Reidpath said.

The observatory was established as a generic research platform capable of supporting a multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary research in the clinical and biomedical sciences, the social sciences, economics, education, and environmental sciences.

Its establishment was to provide a base from which high quality, internationally-relevant science could be conducted that would also have an impact locally and regionally.

Professor Reidpath said there were opportunities for environmental scientists, psychologists, geographists, political scientists and economists.

“For example, there are Malay, Chinese and Indian kids going to government and private schools. It would be a good opportunity to study this over time and measure government policy,” he suggested.

“Also, psychologists may be interested in intelligence testing across families while demographers and social policy workers may want to study the emerging single homes in rural areas as a result of husbands leaving their families and marrying elsewhere – a trend we are beginning to see here,” he said.

SEACO’s present collaborators include researchers at Monash University (Australia and Sunway campuses), the University of Copenhagen, Harvard University and the University of Amsterdam.

The observatory was launched by Mentri Besar (Chief Minister) of Johor, Y.A.B. Dato’ Haji Abdul Ghani bin Othman, in Johor Bahru, on 20th of November 2011, and is hosted by the Jeffrey Cheah School of Medicine and Health Sciences and operationally managed by Monash University Sunway campus.

Monash University, said Professor Reidpath, had the idea to establish SEACO not just as a project, but as a research platform.

“We want to see master students who can perform short stints and PhD candidates who can do their research in Segamat. There are many opportunities for them to explore,” he said.

The SEACO project involves five sub-districts in Segamat, in the State of Johor - Bekok, Chaah, Gemereh, Jabi and Sungai Segamat. SEACO’s role in the DHSS project is to track the health and well-being of 15,000 people to investigate household and community factors that maintain or prevent diseases, especially non-communicable diseases.

In March this year, a colouring competition was held among children in Cha'ah, Johor Bahru, with the theme, "Health Community Through Research". Seen here is Professor Dr Daniel Reidpath.  

“We have a response rate of 70 per cent of the households, and we are hoping that more households will say ‘yes’ as we are there longer,” said Dr Reidpath, adding that it had initially been a challenge to gain the community’s support, but as the project improved and the community saw its benefits, it became easier to engage them.
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