History

The idea of a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Malaysia was conceived in the early 1990s and approved during the 7th Malaysia Plan beginning 1996. The establishment of the NIH was proposed as an approach to address an urgent need to formulate strategies to strengthen health research in the Ministry of Health Malaysia (MOH).

The objectives of the NIH are to:

• encourage health research to support health services;
• encourage networking and linkages between component institutes of the NIH and also with other research agencies, within and outside the country;
• encourage use of research in health management so that programmes and research activities are needs driven and cost effective, through priority setting, resource allocation and development of facilities and human resources that are effective and systematic; and
• produce new discoveries to strengthen and develop health systems and health technologies which are up to date.

The functional organization of NIH consists of institutes with their own Directors and they report to the Director of NIH whose main functions are to set research priorities and allocate research funding. The NIH Director is assisted by a Directorate that is responsible for research management as well as coordination and provision of common-user facilities for the component institutions.

Currently there are 7 institutes under the NIH. They are Institute for Medical Research (IMR), Institute for Public Health (IPH), Network for Clinical Research Centres (CRC), Institute for Health Management (IHM), Institute for Health Systems Research (IHSR), Institute for Health Promotion (IHP) and National Institute for Natural Products, Vaccines and Biological (NINPVB).

Each of these NIH institutes has its own major research thrusts. The IMR will focus on biomedical research, the CRC on clinical research, the IPH on public health research, the IHM on health management research, the IHP on behavioural research and the IHSR on health systems research. The institutes also carry out training and other service functions to varying degrees. Teaching and services continue to exist as important functions to ensure a greater and more appropriate relevance for the research conducted, to facilitate application of research findings and to evaluate the impact of interventions.

A significant step in the management of the NIH was the launching of the NIH Management Board by the Honourable Dato' Chua Jui Meng, Minister of Health, on 3 November 1997. The Management Board is chaired by the Deputy Director-General of Health (Research & Technical Support) who is the NIH Director, and its members comprise all NIH institute Directors.

To promote the NIH and to disseminate research findings of the Ministry of Health, the NIH organizes annual NIH Scientific Meetings. Organization of these Scientific Meeting is rotated among the NIH institutes.

An additional forum to promote the NIH and their activities is the NIH Bulletin. The first issue of the bulletin was published in June 1999. Information in the bulletin includes news from the institutes, current research findings, courses and seminars to be organized, profiles of key personnel, major research projects, and research facilities available.

One of the main functions of the NIH is the setting of health research priorities for the Ministry of Health. Short-term priorities are set at an annual research dialogue, that is a forum for discussion of research needs between researchers and health service providers in the MOH. Medium-term priorites are set as part of the 5-year Malaysia Plan's process.

The NIH manages a special allocation to fund research development in the MOH.