The persistent increase in cases of noncommunicable diseases has resulted in a growing number of patients with life-limiting illnesses. Over the past decade, healthcare organisations have adopted digital health services as one of the main strategies for combatting these issues. However, many challenges persist, and we need to understand them to ensure the effective implementation of these digital health services. OBJECTIVES: To explore the experiences of using telemedicine among healthcare professionals caring for patients with life-limiting illnesses and their carers. METHOD: An exploratory qualitative study was carried out using a semi-structured interview. A purposive sample of healthcare professionals (N= 24) that included eligible nurses (n=12) and doctors (n= 12) was recruited. The data were analysed using thematic framework analysis and big data analytic techniques including text mining and Apriori association were applied to generate themes from the responses gathered. RESULTS: A total of five meaningful themes were identified: (1) COVID-19 as a catalyst for telemedicine, (2) Challenges moving towards telemedicine in Brunei, (3) Telemedicine in a family-oriented country, (4) One centre for telemedicine and (5) Consolidation of telemedicine. The experiences with telemedicine varied among the participants. The use of telemedicine surged during the pandemic, as the participants were forced to use telemedicine to communicate with their patients due to social restrictions. Few factors were found that needed to be considered when using telemedicine such as patients' criteria and protocol for telemedicine. Challenges in using telemedicine, such as the long hours in using telemedicine due to the rapid adoption of telemedicine and the absence of physical assessment and vulnerability from the point of view of healthcare professionals were also found to be significant in this study. CONCLUSION: The integration of telemedicine into current healthcare services proved to be beneficial not only for healthcare professionals but also for patients and carers. With telemedicine, more communities will be reached, especially for patients who have difficulties meeting their doctors and nurses physically. Different groups of patients may require different levels of telemedicine use; hence, stringent guidelines or protocols are required to ensure that the use of telemedicine is appropriate according to the needs of the patients.

Palms are one of the oldest surviving monocotyledonous plant families, and occur in a variety of ecosystem types, including rainforests, mountainous regions, dry forests, savannas, and desert oases. They are one of the keystone species in tropical forests that provide numerous ecosystem services. Palms have been widely studied by botanists because of their iconic and majestic appearance, although ecological studies of palm abundance, distributions, and diversity are only recently gaining attention. The abundance and diversity of palms at different spatial scales can be influenced by various factors, such as climate, soil properties, hydrology, topography, and forest structure, and understanding these influences is essential for conservation. This thesis presents a series of studies conducted in tropical lowland rain forests of Brunei Darussalam to examine the differences in diversity and communities of Pinanga palms in two contrasting lowland tropical forests, Heath and Mixed Dipterocarp forests, in Brunei Darussalam. Pinanga represents one of the largest genera of palms and has been extensively collected by botanists, though ecological studies on Pinanga remain limited. With a centre of diversity in Borneo, more comprehensive studies are needed to better understand the ecology of Pinanga. Two studies were designed in this thesis, focusing on the influence of soil and environmental properties on Pinanga abundance, diversity and community composition in heath and Mixed Dipterocarp forests (Chapter 2), and an examination of eight leaf functional traits in selected Pinanga species found in these two distinct forest types (Chapter 3). In Chapter 2, all Pinanga palms within a 3-ha sampling area per site (three Heath forests and three Mixed Dipterocarp forests sites) were recorded and taxonomically identified. Soil and environmental properties were determined for each study site. The study found that Mixed Dipterocarp forests exhibited significantly higher Pinanga abundance than Heath forests, while Pinanga abundance, species richness, Shannon's index, evenness and Inverse Simpson's index were significantly differed between all six sites. Findings have shown both soil properties and elevation were the main drivers for Pinanga community composition in the Mixed Dipterocarp forest sites, but Heath forest sites were only driven by environmental properties. In Chapter 3, four Pinanga species (Pinanga salicifolia, Pinanga lepidota, Pinanga mooreana and Pinanga mirabillis) found in these two distinct forest types were examined for selected leaf traits. The study's results have shown a significant difference in leaf traits between the two forest types, as well as between Pinanga species found within a forest type. Pinanga leaf traits were also reported to be highly influenced by soil properties, humidity and elevation. This thesis provided new insights into the understanding of Pinanga palm community composition and Pinanga leaf traits differences in two distinct lowland forest type in Brunei Darussalam. Importantly, this MSc study presented new information on Pinanga palms in Brunei Darussalam and with this information it will be valuable towards its conservation, as well as to contribute knowledge that can be used in further studies on palm communities in Borneo.