The National Medical Excellence Awards (NMEA) recognises the efforts of outstanding clinicians, clinician scientists and other healthcare professionals for their contributions. It acknowledges their achievements in advancing healthcare, improving the standards of patient safety and driving research and education, which ultimately improve people's lives.
This year, we are proud that 10 SingHealth Duke-NUS AMC staff are recipients of the prestigious NMEA 2024:
National Outstanding Clinician Award 2024
Prof Tan Ban Hock Chief Quality Officer, SGH Senior Consultant, Department of Infectious Diseases, SGHClinical Professor and Master Academic Clinician, Duke-NUSProfessor Tan Ban Hock always puts his patients first. By acting courageously on his beliefs, he has been a leader in infectious diseases (ID) and a champion for patient safety at Singapore General Hospital (SGH).
He began his career as one of the two ID physicians in the hospital, at a time when ID was not even a department. Through his tireless efforts, Prof Tan built and developed the ID department into one befitting a world-class hospital. The ID department now runs a Transplant ID (TID) service, the Outpatient Parenteral Antibiotic Clinic, a Travel and Vaccination Clinic, and the Antibiotic Stewardship programme, in addition to providing regular inpatient and outpatient care. The department is actively involved in epidemic preparedness, oversees the isolation ward, and has a rising reputation for research. Prof Tan collaborates closely with microbiologists in the hospital in clinical ID, which has significantly shaped practice in SGH and beyond.
Over the years, he recruited and nurtured successive cohorts of ID specialists who are now prominent physicians in both public and private institutions. Many junior doctors compete to join the ID department, keen to work with Prof Tan and the senior clinical team trained by him.
With his special interest in caring for immunocompromised patients, Prof Tan's efforts entrenched TID as a quaternary service in SGH. He has been a local pioneer in this field, closely involved in the writing and the revision of many ID protocols in various transplant programmes in SGH. The TID team attracts doctors beyond SGH, including those from several Asian countries. He has been widely recognised for his efforts in TID, serving as President of the TID section of The Transplantation Society 2021 to 2023. From TID, he branched into medical mycology, where he demonstrated knowledge and leadership qualities and was made Co-Chair of the Asia Fungal Working Group (AFWG), a position he held from 2008 to 2018.
Prof Tan's foresight in developing epidemic preparedness enabled SGH to respond nimbly to international outbreaks, such as during the MERS, H7N9, and Ebola events. In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, he conceived and successfully championed the concept of the Acute Respiratory Infections wards to segregate patients with suspicious symptoms outside the official definitions of a suspected case.
As Chief Quality Officer, Prof Tan committed himself to infection prevention and patient safety, introducing innovations and changes to the existing structures to enhance governance. He brought about several changes to the way a Root Cause Analysis (RCA) was conducted, and introduced the concept of a thematic RCA, where events that clustered around a theme were reviewed in aggregate, so that a bigger picture could emerge, thus allowing for impactful change. As a practising clinician, he connects easily with ground staff, thus bringing to bear on them his personal attention to safe practices.
Prof Tan's commitment to teaching and training is evident through his role as a keen bedside tutor. He has won numerous Best Teacher/Best Faculty awards and is a regular speaker at local and international conferences. Working with the Australasian Society of ID through the AFWG, he jointly started the Fungal Frontiers webinar series, bringing mycology education to the region.
Knowing intuitively that research would elevate the department, Prof Tan sent his first two Registrars on research fellowships abroad. He supported his doctors when they elected to pursue research careers. The result is a formidable research team in the ID Department, which collaborated with Duke-NUS Medical School to form the Viral Research and Experimental Medicine Centre.
Above all, Prof Tan remains a clinician at heart. As a doctor, he continues to be respected for his bedside skills and is regularly consulted on the most difficult clinical cases in and beyond SGH. He practices holistically, giving his best to patient care. In recognition of his skills and efforts, he was awarded the top-tier Superstar award at the SingHealth Service Quality Awards 2013, was conferred Master Physician (Internal Medicine) in 2017, and was the youngest inductee of the inaugural Duke-NUS Hall of Master Academic Clinicians in 2021. His unwavering dedication to patient care and his significant impact on the ID landscape make him a true clinician leader.
For his dedication to his patients and his outstanding contributions to elevating Infectious Diseases in Singapore General Hospital to world-class standards, Professor Tan Ban Hock is awarded the National Outstanding Clinician Award 2024.
National Outstanding Clinician Scientist Award 2024
Prof Jodhbir Mehta Singh Deputy CEO (Research), SNEC Executive Director, SERIProfessor and interim Director, Centre for Vision ResearchProf Jodhbir Mehta is a highly accomplished Clinician Scientist, and has made instrumental contributions both internationally and in the Asia Pacific region. Clinically, he is one of the leading specialists in the world on corneal diseases and refractive surgical procedures, while academically he has demonstrated a remarkable track record in publications and securing funding. His research interests span across all aspects of corneal external disease and refractive surgery, with corneal transplantation research as the key focus.
He currently helms as the Deputy Chief Executive Officer (Research), Distinguished Professor in Clinical Innovation in Ophthalmology, Singapore National Eye Centre (SNEC) and Academic Vice-Chair (Research) with the SingHealth Duke-NUS Ophthalmology and Visual Science Academic Clinical Programme. He holds concurrent appointments as Executive Director of the Singapore Eye Research Institute (SERI) and heads the Tissue Engineering and Cell Therapy Research Group at SERI. He also serves as Senior Consultant and former Head of the Cornea and External Eye Disease Department at SNEC. Furthermore, he is a tenured Distinguished Professor at the Duke-NUS Medical School.
Directing a strong multi-disciplinary team and partnering a wide network of collaborators, Prof Mehta has driven various research projects successfully, many of which have produced breakthroughs and patents with high translational potential.
Prof Mehta exhibits a prolific publication record, with over 520 peer-reviewed papers in acclaimed international journals and has authored over 24 book chapters. He has a H-index of 73 with over 20,500 citations. He has published in The New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, Nature Biomedical Engineering, Nature Review Disease Primers, Nature Communications as well as high impact eye journals e.g., Progress in Retinal and Eye Research, Ophthalmology. He has filed 24 patents from his research work, of which, six have been commercialised and licensed to companies. As a leader of one of the top research programmes at SERI, he has received several competitive research grants, achieving over $15 million as Principal Investigator. As a further reflection of his high standing in the global ophthalmology community, he is currently ranked first in the world for expertise in Cornea and second for Refractive Surgery on Expertscape.com. He has given over 350 invited lectures and 19 named lectures. He also serves on the editorial board of several ophthalmic and visual sciences journals.
Beyond research, Prof Mehta is a committed educator. Apart from lecturing and teaching various local and international courses, he also supervises and mentors junior clinicians, fellows (over 30 local and international fellows), researchers (12 PhD and MSc students) and undergraduate students.
Prof Mehta has received many international awards for the excellent contributions and achievements from his research, clinical and educational endeavours. Some of his accolades include the Nakajima Award (Asia Pacific Academy for Ophthalmology, 2013), Senior Achievement Award (American Academy of Ophthalmology, 2017), Doug Coster Lecture (Australia and New Zealand Cornea Society, 2018), Charles Tilett Lecture (Fuchs Society, USA, 2020), Casebeer Award (International Society of Refractive Surgery, AAO, 2020), Charles McGhee Medal (BSRS, Oxford UK, 2023), APAO Senior Achievement Award 2023, and ACE Award APACRS 2023. He is the current Vice-President of the US Corneal Society
For his remarkable contributions to global ophthalmology, and unwavering dedication to nurture and lead the next generation of ophthalmic professionals, Professor Jodhbir Mehta is awarded the National Outstanding Clinician Scientist Award 2024.
Prof Jerry Chan Director, KK Research Centre Senior Consultant, Department of Reproductive Medicine, KKH Director, SingHealth Duke-NUS Maternal and Child Health Research InstituteProfessor Jerry Chan is a Clinician Scientist in Obstetrics and Gynaecology l. His expertise lies in unravelling the scientific mysteries of diseases as well as developing and implementing treatments in the realm of maternal and child health.
Prof Chan's notable contributions include fetal stem cells and gene therapies targeting inherited diseases, breakthroughs in fetal immunology, advances in preconception health, and pioneering contributions in reproductive medicine.
Fetal stem cell/gene therapy can be an effective cure for inherited diseases that cause irreversible damage to the baby before birth. Prof Chan and an international team performed a fetal stem cell transplant to cure a baby of brittle bone disease, a genetic disease that causes stunted growth and repeated painful fracturing. Together with other scientists he also discovered that Gaucher disease, a neurodegenerative disease, can be prevented with fetal gene therapy. He is now pushing the boundaries with the use of nanoparticles to deliver gene editing therapies for a range of inherited genetic diseases.
Additionally, Prof Chan is part of a team of local and international scientists who have advanced the understanding of the developing fetal immune system. Some of their discoveries include the early development of fetal immunity from the second trimester, the molecular basis for maternal-fetal transmission of allergies, the early fetus' response to bacteria, and the ability of liver cancer cells to mimic fetal-like cells to evade immune rejection. These findings have enabled global scientists and researchers to understand the optimal window for fetal intervention to achieve the best treatment outcomes.
As the Director of the SingHealth Duke-NUS Maternal and Child Health Research Institute, Prof Chan champions a life-course approach towards better population health. He leads his teams to identify the best opportunities to prevent and control diseases at key stages of life, from preconception through pregnancy, infancy, childhood, and adolescence to adulthood. This strategy aims to transform population health, by setting a strong foundation at the preconception stage for a healthy pregnancy, to give the baby the best start in life. One of his main programmes is HELMS (Healthy Early Life Moments in Singapore), an interventional study designed to improve the health of women planning pregnancies.
Prof Chan's interest in addressing the global decline in fertility rates has led him to pioneer numerous advances in the field. This includes using letrozole, traditionally used to treat breast cancer, to treat oligozoospermia (low sperm count) as an alternative to in-vitro fertilisation (IVF), and the development of a device to automate IVF laboratory processes.
Drawing on an outstanding track record of leading and contributing to impactful research projects, Prof Chan has secured over $100 million in research funding, including $6 million in 2023 under the prestigious Singapore Translational Research (STaR) Investigator Award, National Medical Research Council's pinnacle talent award for clinician scientists. His extensive publication record comprises over 300 articles in peer-reviewed journals, many of which are globally renowned high-impact factor publications including Cell and Nature. Additionally, he is acknowledged as one of the World's Highly-Cited Researchers by the Institute for Scientific Information at Clarivate.
To build a robust community of clinician scientists and investigators dedicated to driving innovation and translational cures in healthcare, Prof Chan mentors and supervises numerous researchers, many of whom have gone on to make significant contributions in their respective fields. He was also the immediate past president of the Singapore Obstetrics and Gynaecology Network which promotes synergy and high-quality translational research among public maternity hospitals.
For his innovative discoveries and translational research, and dedication in transforming the maternal and child health research community in Singapore and globally, Professor Jerry Chan is awarded the National Outstanding Clinician Scientist Award 2024.
National Clinical Excellence Team Award 2024
Neighbours for Active Living Team
With the visionary concept of activating the communities and practising place-based population care, the Neighbours for Active Living Programme (Neighbours) was pioneered by Changi General Hospital (CGH) in collaboration with the South East Community Development Council (SECDC) in 2013 to care for the community and address the socio-determinants of health by empowering seniors to get well, keep well and age well in the community, and fostering supportive relationships within communities. Through an innovative and integrated health and social model, Neighbours continues to play an instrumental role today in meeting the evolving healthcare needs of the population and fulfilling the roles required for holistic care.
An early champion of preventive care with a strong foundation in healthcare delivery in the community, CGH had identified the need for continual care and support for an increasing number of seniors in the community who lack adequate support to care for themselves or live alone, as social isolation and loneliness are associated with higher risks for health problems. A holistic person-centred approach was developed by the CGH Neighbours Community Care Team to ensure that seniors with complex health-social needs continue to receive timely care after their discharge from the hospital.
Comprising 50 healthcare professionals with a combination of health and social care expertise, the CGH Neighbours Community Care Team has conducted more than 100,000 care calls and home visits to assess seniors' medical conditions and formulate care plans to support seniors in addressing long-term social and health care needs. They also built a robust and extensive community network of care support with national agencies, health and social care providers, and grassroots and faith-based organisations.
Underpinning the Neighbours' proactive care approach is none other than the Chinese adage: "Close neighbours are better than distant relatives". The programme leverages the close-knit ties of volunteers and neighbours to provide companionship and social support to vulnerable seniors while looking out for their wellbeing, thereby forging meaningful relationships that enrich everyone's lives. The volunteers also alert the Neighbours Community Care Team of anomalies that may require medical attention and interventions. To some of these patients, the last mile of care was completed with the linking up of these volunteers who supported them in breaking their repeated hospital readmission patterns and encouraged them to stay healthy in their own community.
Over the past decade, Neighbours has provided place-based care and personalised support to over 14,000 residents spanning 18 communities in the eastern part of Singapore, in collaboration with over 70 community partners, significantly improving health outcomes and reducing hospital readmissions for seniors. Under the Neighbours Friend-A-Senior @ South East programme, over 900 volunteers from all walks of life have been trained and matched with seniors by the CGH Neighbours Community Care Team and SECDC, with 26,000 hours of volunteer hours put in to date.
To better assist patients with health and social needs, Neighbours collaborated with SingHealth Polyclinics to pilot the Primary Care-Based Integrated Care Team (PACE-IT) programme at Marine Parade Polyclinic, and teamed up with two Active Ageing Centres on Assisted-Living pilot projects to help residents age-in-place.
With the launch of Healthier SG in 2023, Neighbours has seamlessly transitioned to a data-driven, place-based, population health approach, with its community care team members taking on the role of Wellbeing Coordinators to manage the care of the population in the east. The Neighbours team continues to be the anchor in the community, with community nurses, primary care doctors and partners connected in one health ecosystem. These teams are embedded within the communities, enabling them to leverage the established network to better coordinate care and support patients at home and in the community. By understanding the resources available, these place-based care teams can then identify emerging needs and gaps while strengthening the social fabric of the community.
For their outstanding dedication and innovation in transforming care delivery through integrating health and social care, empowering communities, and improving the quality of life of seniors in Eastern Singapore, the Neighbours for Active Living team is awarded the National Clinical Excellence Team Award 2024.
Social Prescribing Programme
Social prescribing is a novel approach to healthcare that aims to improve health outcomes by supplementing biomedical clinical prescriptions with tailored social prescriptions for patients. To effectively address the complex needs of our ageing population, SingHealth Community Hospitals (SCH) has been adapting the practice of social prescribing since 2019 for patients across its community hospitals.
Wellbeing coordinators (WBCs) in SCH – the integral non-clinical workforce behind social prescribing – will conduct assessments to screen patients for their social determinants of health (SDOH) upon admission and formulate social prescriptions to be included into their care plans. To date, more than 3,000 patients have been screened for their SDOH, with suitable patients successfully linked to activities, resources and interest groups to improve their overall wellbeing.
Capability building has also been established as a critical component of overall sustainability of social prescribing. In November 2022, the SCH Office of Learning (SCHOOL) was launched to develop competencies and integrate health and social care across the ecosystem. A few signature programmes under SCHOOL are the SGUnited Skills course in Health and Social Care Coordination which trained over 40 Singaporeans for the health and social sectors, where at least a quarter of them have been deployed into health and social sectors, the WSQ-accredited course "Implementing Interventions in Health and Social Care" which has completed five runs for learners, and the "Introduction to Social Connector for Social and Lifestyle Interventions" course which will train all 900 Active Ageing Centre employees with social prescribing skillsets. Building capabilities in social prescribing was not limited to just the non-clinical workforce. In 2022, SCH partnered Duke-NUS Medical School to formally integrate social prescribing early into its medical curriculum for Year 1 students, so that the medical students can understand that social determinants are key drivers that influence patients' health outcomes.
To further advocate and share best social prescribing practices amongst the local health and social sectors, the team organised the first Asia Pacific Social Prescribing Conference in 2022, which was attended by more than 1,000 participants, including international participants from Australia, Japan, Canada and UK. The second edition of the conference will take place in November this year.
For its social prescribing efforts, the team has received international attention and validation. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has offered collaboration platforms to SCH to share about its social prescribing practices, such as speaking at WHO webinars, inclusion of the team as co-developers in the WHO Social Prescribing Toolkit, and the co-development of an online course in social prescribing in WHO's Massive Open Online Course platform, OpenWHO. On the research front, collaborations were initiated to document and share SCH's implementation of social prescribing in peer-reviewed journals, including The Lancet Regional Health and The British Medical Journal (BMJ).
Social prescribing has been steadily gaining traction in Singapore. Healthcare institutions across SingHealth are recruiting WBCs and rolling out social prescribing to meet individuals' holistic needs. In 2023, SCH launched the Singapore Community of Practice in Social Prescribing platform to foster a dynamic and collaborative ecosystem to advance the understanding, implementation, and impact of social prescribing interventions and has nearly 1,000 members today.
Supported by Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth, SCH has embarked on a living asset mapping project aimed at improving the wellbeing of elderly Singaporeans. The Singapore Land Authority is SCH's geospatial partner in this project. The methodology of the living asset map was also validated in the Geographic Information System space, and the team attained the GeoInnovation Award by Esri Singapore. SCH is also partnering with the National Arts Council to study the impact of arts on wellbeing and develop a framework to promote the arts for health.
For their steadfast commitment and outstanding achievements in establishing and advocating for social prescribing practices locally to improve the wellbeing of Singaporeans, the Social Prescribing team is awarded the National Community Care Excellence Team Award 2024.
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