News

For Immediate Release: 28 March 2011

Le Mamea Dr. Limbo Fiu Appointed to Dean for Samoa and Pacific Islands

Following an international search, Oceania University of Medicine (OUM) has named Le Mamea Dr. Limbo Fiu, General Manager at Tupua Tamasese Meaole Hospital, to Dean for Samoa and the Pacific Islands.

“The search committee reviewed the applications of many distinguished medical educators from overseas, and we are absolutely thrilled that the most qualified candidate to lead OUM-Samoa is Dr. Limbo Fiu,” says Taffy Gould, Chairman of the OUM Council and Interim Vice Chancellor, who also headed the search committee.

Dr. Fiu has provided more than two decades of service to the health sector for the Government of Samoa, both as a doctor in a senior role as well as a hospital administrator. In September 2010, Dr. Fiu was appointed by Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Soli'ai Sailele Malielegaoi as the top administrator and Acting General Manager for the Samoa National Health Service.

“It is an honour to be selected as Dean for OUM,” says Dr. Fiu, who begins work officially on the 28th of March 2011. “I have been involved with OUM since 2008 and share the vision that it can be an excellent centre of medical education, innovation, learning, and research for Samoa and indeed the entire South Pacific.”

Dr. Fiu is a cardiologist and plans to continue seeing patients and teaching students while fulfilling his role as Dean, which includes full responsibility for supervision of the faculty, administration, and facilities of OUM’s Apia campus, evaluating the curriculum to ensure that it meets licensure requirements, coordinating clinical clerkships, and arranging post-graduate training.

“How wonderful for OUM and Samoa that one of our own has ascended to this position at our growing medical school with a thriving international student body and the acclaim of international accreditation,” says Dr. Eti Enosa, OUM Chancellor.

Dr. Fiu received his Bachelor of Medicine Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB) in 1991 and Bachelor of Human Biology in 1987 from Auckland University Medical School in New Zealand, which is working closely with OUM on faculty exchanges, mentoring, clinical clerkships for students, and a number of initiatives.

In addition, Dr. Fiu completed a cardiology fellowship at Greenland Hospital in Auckland in 2005 and received a Diploma of Business in Frontline Management from the University of New England in Australia in 2007. Dr. Fiu was the project manager for the WHO Steps Survey looking at the prevalence of non-communicable disease risk factors in the Samoan population in 2002, the largest survey of its kind to be planned and conducted in Samoa and now published by WHO.

A member of the Samoa Medical Society and a board member of the National Kidney Foundation of Samoa, Dr. Fiu is a High Chief from the village of Matautu Lefaga having been conferred the chiefly title of “Le Mamea” in 2008.

Dr. Fiu has four children and resides near Apia, the capital of Samoa.

Located on the grounds of the National Hospital Complex in Apia, Samoa, Oceania University of Medicine, which offers MD and MBBS degrees to its graduates, has a current student body of approximately 125 from five countries. Graduates are receiving their post-graduate residency and internship specialty training at teaching hospitals in Australia, Samoa, and the United States. OUM is accredited by the Philippine Accrediting Association of Schools, Colleges and Universities, listed in the World Health Organization's World Directory of Medical Schools, and recognized by the Education Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates. For more information about OUM, visit www.oceaniamed.org.