Strength, Hope and Shine: 25 Years of SingHealth

"Whatever we do, we must always put patients and their families at the centre, while providing excellent healthcare. That principle has never changed." - Professor Tan Ser Kiat (Group CEO, SingHealth 2000-2012)

On our 25th birthday, we reflect on our evolution from a newly formed healthcare cluster into a global Academic Medical Centre (AMC), through the perspectives and leadership of our past and present Group CEOs, Prof Tan Ser Kiat, Professor Ivy Ng, and Professor Wai Hoe NG .

As Singapore's largest public healthcare cluster, SingHealth has been at the heart of the nation's healthcare journey. Our story is one of vision, courage and an enduring commitment to those whom we care for – one that is shaped by leaders who believe in the power of unity, innovation and people.

Building from the Beginning

A steely determination crosses Prof Tan's face when he remembers the formation of the cluster in 2000. "I had a tremendous task of trying to bring together a group of disparate institutions and polyclinics, all with different ideas of what they're doing to share a common vision." The challenge was not merely administrative; it was deeply human.

Prof Tan Ser Kiat

"The difficulty was trying to bring people together with different backgrounds," Prof Tan reflected. His approach was decidedly personal. "I feel that to bring them together, it is easier for me to go down on the ground, walk the ground, talk to people and address their concerns more than anything else."

With characteristic candour, Prof Tan acknowledged the complexity of his mission, "I cannot, in all honesty, say that I've totally succeeded in what I've set out to do, but the ability to bring people together is what I thought was the first success." Over time, those conversations laid the foundation for trust and unity. Prof Tan knew that lasting success was not about structures or systems, but about our people sharing the same purpose.

Forging Our Shared Identity

When Prof Ivy took over the leadership baton in 2012, she brought both continuity and fresh vision to the role. Having been part of our journey from the beginning, she understood innately what needed to change.

Prof Ivy Ng

"We had come together. Some boundaries were gone. But there wasn't optimally a ‘working together’," she observed.

"During my period of leadership, there was a greater focus on actually working together so that we could optimise care for patients and wrap care around them."

"Our people recognised we were in the same cluster, but there were underlying tensions and friction," she recalled. Her solution was both simple and profound: create a compelling shared identity.

Prof Ivy introduced the unifying vision and mission that still resonate today. "We changed our vision, which was several sentences long into three words: Defining Tomorrow's Medicine," she explained. “Our mission became equally compelling: Care to Heal, Educate to Empower, Innovate to Advance, anchored by our core purpose, Patients at the Heart of All We Do.”

Her tenure also saw significant strides in pursuit of academic medicine, our partnership with Duke-NUS Medical School began and grew from strength to strength. Key systems and structures were put in place to foster collaboration including implementing central employment of doctors, and the establishment of Academic Clinical Programmes and Joint Research Institutes. For Prof Ivy, the most profound transformation was the paradigm shift in culture.

"There's a saying that culture eats strategy for breakfast," she noted, "and certainly we didn't want to just have plans of becoming a global leading AMC, but to have it pulsate in every heart of all the people in SingHealth."

The Importance of Defining Tomorrow's Medicine

Today, under Prof Wai Hoe, we continue to evolve in response to a rapidly changing healthcare landscape. Drawing on a clinical analogy, he describes SingHealth’s unique position,

"A clinician is known as a triple threat when he or she is able to be a superlative clinician, outstanding researcher, and excellent teacher and educator. Using this analogy, I would say that SingHealth is a triple threat."

Prof Ng Wai Hoe

He elaborated, "SingHealth has a wealth and depth of high volume, high quality clinical services across the entire continuum of clinical care, we have built up a world class academic medical centre trailblazing world class discoveries and innovation. We also have a very rigorous and robust education enterprise that is well positioned to train healthcare professionals of tomorrow."

What truly sets us apart, Prof Wai Hoe believes, lies deeper.

"Our secret sauce is our people. I'm really proud that we have colleagues with a very strong sense of mission and purpose, always forward thinking, optimistic, open minded, open to any challenges, and always ready, motivated and prepared to define tomorrow's medicine."

Looking ahead, Prof Wai Hoe sees three key priorities for us. Firstly, transforming care by "going more upstream into preventive care, and being able to deliver care more in the community." Secondly, embracing genomics, precision medicine and artificial intelligence to become "a digital AMC that would mirror and be able to do all that we are doing currently in the physical space, and more." Thirdly, ensuring "our research becomes more impactful in the real world, and ultimately, impacts patients."

Undergirding these priorities is a fundamental truth, "Healthcare is about people looking after people, and we are arguably the most people-centric and people-oriented industry," Prof Ng emphasised. "We will need to continue to be a talent magnet and create a culture where our people have that psychological safety to be creative and innovative. We must facilitate a work environment that is joyful, where people are happy to work together cohesively with good teamwork and collaboration."

Our Unchanging Values in a Changing World

Even as healthcare delivery continues to transform at an unprecedented pace, some principles must remain unwavering.

"We constantly want to define tomorrow's medicine. We constantly want to push to be a global leading AMC that adds value to the health of not just our patients, but for Singapore and beyond," Prof Ivy shared. "The focus on the three pillars of clinical care, research and innovation and education remains steadfast, and most of all, it’s that compelling motivation to keep patients at the heart of our cluster, of our AMC. That's our raison d'être, and that doesn't change. That's what drives us."

From Strength to Strength

As we look to the future, our 25th anniversary theme – Strength, Hope and Shine – reflects both our journey and our aspirations.

Prof Tan's wish is unapologetically ambitious. "The one thing that I wish for SingHealth for the next 25 years is to be much better than what we are today, even double of what we are doing today in the care that we deliver to our patients."

Prof Ivy's hope centres on the human connection that defines healthcare. "The one thing I want for SingHealth is to be known for listening to our patients, improving their care, improving their health, and being completely patient-centred in our approach to their care."

Prof Wai Hoe's hope is that SingHealth will go from strength to strength as a healthcare system, improving our capability to care for patients. "We will continue to be an organisation of hope and optimism, always defining tomorrow's medicine, and that we will continue to shine as a global academic medical centre where our discoveries benefit patients everywhere."

Forging One SingHealth

From disconnected institutions to a global AMC with a unified purpose. From individual excellence to collective impact. From caring for Singapore to shaping the future of medicine for the world. We are SingHealth: strength as one, hope for tomorrow, shine with purpose.

Watch their conversation:

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