Dr Quah Phaik Ling is currently an Assistant Professor at Duke-NUS Medical School and a Senior Research Fellow at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH). Her area of specialty is maternal and child health, with a particular focus on improving metabolic outcomes through observational and interventional research. She leads studies on early childhood and school-age lifestyle behaviours, and the use of wearable technologies and continuous glucose monitoring in pregnancy to reduce the risk of gestational and type 2 diabetes. She is Principal Investigator of several locally funded studies and Co-Principal Investigator of international surveys on maternal health and behaviour change.

She was a key member of national workgroups involved in the development of several health guidelines, including the Singapore Integrated 24-Hour Activity Guidelines for Children and Adolescents (2020–2021), Early Childhood (2022), the Guidelines for Feeding and Eating in Infants and Young Children (2024), and the upcoming Singapore Sexual Health Guidelines for Women of Reproductive Age (2025). Her contributions support national efforts to improve health outcomes across the life course.

Prior to joining KKH, Dr Quah was with the Agency for Science, Technology and Research’s Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences (A*STAR SICS), working on the Growing Up in Singapore Towards Healthy Outcomes (GUSTO) study. Her work focused on life-course and behavioural nutrition and involved collaborations with international industry partners such as Nestlé Research Centre in Lausanne and Cerebos Research Center in Singapore. She has over 10 years of experience as a research fellow in maternal and child health.

She holds a teaching appointment as Clinical Educator at NTU, contributing to the training of future healthcare professionals in public and maternal-child health.

Dr Quah was awarded the NMRC PHNG-NIG Award for the study E-IMPACT – The eHealth Integrated Maternal Physical Activity Programme in Prenatal Care Trial. She also received seed funding from the RIE2025 Centre Grant Programme (2021) and the KKH Academic Medicine Start-Up Grant (2023), both as Principal Investigator, to study the use of continuous glucose monitoring in pregnancy.

Since joining KKH, she has secured approximately S$200,000 in research funding as Principal Investigator. As Co-Principal Investigator, she is involved in two major studies—I-PROFILE and I-HIPS—focused on wearable technologies for lifestyle behaviour change to improve maternal metabolic health and reduce the risk of gestational and type 2 diabetes. Together, these studies have received S$1.3 million in funding.

To date, Dr Quah has authored 45 internationally peer-reviewed publications, including 21 as first author. Her work has received 1112 citations, with an H-index of 11 and i10-index of 25, reflecting her contributions to the field of maternal and child health.

• Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), National University Singapore, 2013
• Bachelor of Science, Monash University, 2006

• Senior Research Fellow, KKH 2020 - present
• Assistant Professor, Duke NUS, 2024 - present
• Clinical Educator, NTU, July 2025 - June 2026

• Population Health Research Grant- New Investigator Grant (2025)
• KKH Academic Medicine Start-Up Grant (2023)
• Early Childhood Education (ECE) Special Interest Group poster award, The International Society of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity (ISBNPA) Annual Meeting 2022
• RIE2025 Centre Grant Programme (2021)
• Asia Pacific Maternal & Child Metabolic Health Conference 2024 & Integrated Platform for Research in Advancing Metabolic Health Outcomes in Women and Children (IPRAMHO) International Meeting 2021-2025
• Young Investigator Award; 4th ASEAN Paediatric Congress 2011
• Best Poster presentation award, NHG 8th Annual Scientific Congress (ASC) scientific competition 2009

• Maternal and child metabolic health, with a focus on early prevention and intervention across the perinatal and early childhood periods
• Digital and wearable health technologies to support behaviour change and improve outcomes in perinatal care
• Children’s lifestyle and eating behaviours, including early-life determinants and strategies to promote healthy development

• Quah PL, Tan LK, Thain SPT, Lek N, Tagore S, Chern BSM, Ang SB, Wright A, Jong M, Tan KH. First Trimester Mean Glucose Level on Continuous Glucose Monitoring Is Associated with Infant Birth Weight. Diabetes Metab J. 2025 Jun 2. doi: 10.4093/dmj.2024.0700.
• Quah PL, Chan DWK, Loy SL, Ong C, Tan CN, Chia MYH, Chua TBK, Yap F, Chua MC, Tan KH. Caregiver feeding practices for infants and toddlers and their eating behaviors in Singapore. Front Nutr. 2025 Mar 4;12:1540031. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1540031. PMID: 40104818; PMCID: PMC11913686.
• Tan YB, Quah PL, Tan KH - Ethnic-specific oral glucose tolerance (OGTT) phenotypes in women with hyperglycemia in pregnancy:
  BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care 2024;12: e004331.
  PMID: 39366716; DOI: 10.1136/bmjdrc-2024-004331
• Quah PL, Chai SMH, Tan KH.
  Differences in glucose readings between the continuous glucose monitoring calibration free interstitial sensors versus capillary blood glucose monitoring by glucometer: An analysis of two cases.
  Metabol Open. 2024 Apr 18; 22:100282.
  PMID: 38690155; DOI: 10.1016/j.metop.2024.100282.
• Quah PL, Loo BKG, Chia MYH, Chua TBK, Tan TSZ, Chan PC, Tan KH.
  Adherence to 24-hour integrated activity guidelines among infants, toddlers and preschool children in Singapore.
  PLoS One. 2024 Feb 26;19(2):e0298968.
  PMID: 38408072; DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0298968.

• Principal investigator: E-IMPACT(The eHealth Integrated Maternal Physical Activity Programme
  in Prenatal Care Trial )
• Principal Investigator: Integrated Continuous glucose monitoring glycemic cHAracterization during Pregnancy in comparison with OGTT (I-CHAP).
• Principal Investigator: Time-in-range (TIR) of the continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) in mothers with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) to improve birth and delivery outcomes
• Co-investigator: Lifestyle interventions to prevent postpartum type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) in Asian women with history of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM).
• Co-investigator: Integrating the Use of Calibration-Free Continuous Monitoring for Pregnancy Glucose Profiling: (I-PROFILE)