Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah

Director General, Ministry of Health, Malaysia

Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah is a Senior Consultant Surgeon in Breastand Endocrine Surgery, Putrajaya Hospital and the current Director General of Health Malaysia since March 2013. Prior to that, he was the Deputy Director General of Health (Medical) between January 2008 and February 2013.

His area of expertise is in breast endocrine cancers, with numerous published papers and textbook chapters in endocrine surgery. He trained in breast and endocrine surgery under the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons Fellowship programme and obtained his Master of Surgery and Medical Degrees from the National University of Malaysia.

He chairs multiple medical professional councils and national-level technical committees and is actively involved as a policymaker in global organisations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi). He is also a Councillor-at- Large (2017-2021) in the Executive Board of the International Society of Surgery (ISS) and chairs the Global Surgery Committee of ISS.

His special interest lies in enhancing universal healthcare coverage to marginalised communities and bringing personalised healthcare back to the community and home through digital technology and creative innovation.