IMU won first prize at 2015 World Spine Day
INTERNATIONAL Medical University (IMU)’s World Spine Day activities organised by its Semester 4 Chiropractic students won first prize in the chiropractic educational institutions category at the 2015 World Spine Day competition, an achievement that brought great joy to the 5 cohorts of IMU Chiropractic students.
The competition had grouped entries into three categories: professional associations, chiropractic educational institutions, and individuals/private practices.
World Spine Day is celebrated each year on October 16. An initiative of the Global Alliance for Musculoskeletal Health, the World Federation of Chiropractic (WFC) has coordinated World Spine Day activities since 2010 and runs an annual competition attracting entries from the worldwide profession. The theme this year being ‘Your Back at Work’.
Every year, in IMU, it has been a tradition for the Semester 4 Chiropractic students to be the main organisers of the World Spine Day event in October.
Fund-raising activities are conducted and have been absolutely successful, helping to cover the event costs, and at the same time allowed us to reach out to people in the community to inform them about World Spine Day 2015.
In addition to these initiatives, the students used social media as a platform to spread awareness by creating a World Spine Day event page on Instagram and Facebook.
Posters and photographs were posted in social media to inform the public of World Spine Day and what it is about.
In the two days of event, the chiropractic students garnered loads of attention by hanging a 3D vertical spine, which consists of 33 vertebrae from the 3rd floor to the ground floor of the University.
A globe with the ‘WSD’ word was made and a cartoon character spine cut-out, which the students named ‘Spine Minion’, was used as a photo booth in the event.
The students wanted their event to be as interactive as possible, thus had the photo booth which allowed people to take their best possible version of a ‘spine selfie’.
At the end, this activity was very popular and many pictures were taken with the 3D spine and the WSD globe.
In relation to the ‘Your Back at Work’ theme, there was an ergonomics booth made where examples of two different types of working environments were created.
This helped raise awareness amongst the university students and staff members about their spine and sitting posture when in their working environment.
Besides that, games were held in the two-day event. Interesting games, which related to the spine and health, such as the ‘Spinal Dart’ game, fitness challenges such as push-up, vertical leap, squat and planking, and a wobble board game which challenged participants’ balance and coordination were organised during the event.
A free spinal screening was held which served the purpose to screen for specific spinal conditions.
This screening involved the Semesters 2, 4, 6 and 8 Chiropractic students, all of which served on a voluntary basis. At the end of the event, we were content to have roughly 170 participants visit the Spinal Screening activity.
IMU is the first and only University to offer the complete Chiropractic educational programme in Malaysia as well as in all of Southeast Asia.
The 4-year Bachelor of Science (Hons) Chiropractic programme at IMU was awarded full accreditation by the prestigious Council on Chiropractic Education, Australasia (CCEA).
Intake for this programme is in February and August of each year. If you have a desire to be a healthcare professional that is rapidly expanding throughout the world, apply now for an excellent start to an exciting and highly rewarding career.
For more information, please refer to www.imu.edu.my or email: start@imu.edu.my or call IMU at 03-2731 7272.