Features

On 27 June 2024, the LKCMedicine Clinical Sciences Building Level 20 Library buzzed with vibrant discussions as approximately 50 members of the research & innovation community gathered for an enriching networking event. Clinician scientists & innovators, administrators, university faculty, and researchers were brought together in this dynamic setting to exchange ideas, foster collaborations, and explore innovations.

The event provided a unique platform for attendees to connect across disciplines, bridging gaps between clinical practice and academic research. Without designated speakers, the focus was on free-flowing exchange of ideas through organic conversations and spontaneous discussions.

This will be the first of many interdisciplinary casual networking opportunities by the ACSI to come, one of many memorable evenings for our research & innovation community to bond over food and drinks.

Heartiest congratulations to Associate Professor Tey Hong Liang from National Skin Centre (Singapore) for winning the Exemplary Innovator Award at the Public Sector Transformation (PST) Awards 2024! The award recognises exemplary officers or teams who have injected innovation in their work, made a real difference to their stakeholders and advocated the spirit of innovation in their teams and agencies.

A/Prof Tey is a visionary leader and serial innovator. In always putting his patients first and constantly thinking about how to improve their care outcomes, he has helped develop 20 ground-breaking skin health products. Some of these products include a novel dissolvable microneedle patch that reduces post-surgical scarring and an anti-odour foot spray.

A/Prof Tey shared, "It's an honor to be recognised by this award, but what's more meaningful is seeing how our work actually translates into positive real-world outcomes for our patients and population, and helping them improve their quality of life."

As Clinical Director of NHG's Centre for Medical Technologies and Innovations, he also inspires his colleagues and fellow clinicians to think creatively and shares his insights and contributes to innovation activities in the cluster. And to fellow colleagues who are thinking about kickstarting their own innovation projects, A/Prof Tey advised, "Keep looking at the issue from other angles and think outside of conventional approaches. This includes learning from people in other industries and how they tackle their issues.” 

On 7 Jun 2024, ACSI held its first engagement event on research and innovation mentorship, featuring Prof Best, ACSI Chief Mentor and former Dean of LKCMedicine. With an extensive experience in research and education, Prof Best has authored over 200 publications and guided numerous clinicians across his various academic and clinical roles. The research and innovation huddle, attended by Prof Leo Yee-Sin, ACSI Co-President, gathered other key research leaders and national Clinician Scientists and Innovators, who are also established mentors in research and innovation.

Prof Best opened the session by quoting the definition of mentorship from The Science of Effective Mentorship in STEMM (2019): “Mentorship is a professional, working alliance in which individuals work together over time to support the personal and professional growth, development, and success of the relational partners through the provision of career and psychosocial support”, and his views on the difference between a mentor and a coach. The attendees then had an in-depth discussion on the elements of an effective mentor-mentee relationship, the distinct roles and responsibilities of mentors and mentees, and the challenges of the mentoring process.

Organised by the ACSI Recruitment & Development Domain and facilitated by Assoc Prof Angela Chow, ACSI Lead Mentor and Senior Consultant, TTSH, the event was held at LKCMedicine Clinical Sciences Building.

On the evening of 24 April, senior management, researchers, innovators, and staff from NHG and Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine) gathered for a warm and cosy fireside chat and networking session with NHG Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) Prof Joe Sim. Jointly organised by KTPH’s Clinical Research Unit (CRU) and the Academy of Clinician Scientists and Innovators (ACSI), this hybrid event saw more than 200 attendees joining us physically and virtually over Zoom.

Clinical research is crucial for advancing medical knowledge, improving patient care, and enhancing treatment outcomes. As such, having a strong research culture is one of NHG’s four key strategic priorities. Participants had the opportunity to hear from Prof Joe Sim on his direction and plans for Research & Innovation in NHG, including talent development and training in this area.

Prof Sim highlighted some of the steps we can take towards growing our research culture and improving NHG’s research standing:

• Fostering a research-friendly environment that is driven at the department level, across various clinical job families
• Having a shared vision and improving research literacy across all the teams, both clinical and administrative, who support research work
• Building a robust infrastructure to better support data accessibility and analytics
• Participating in more grant calls and increasing our competitiveness in securing grant funding
• Building a strong partnership with NTU and LKCMedicine through joint programmes and targets, and shared resources
  

Through these efforts, we can deepen our research culture and move together to push the boundaries towards achieving more impactful research and healthcare outcomes for NHG.

What is the secret recipe to publishing in the top journals?

On 25 October 2023, Prof Howard Bauchner, MD shared his insights to successful publications and experience as the 16th Editor in Chief of JAMA and the JAMA Network (2011 – 2021) at the ACSI Fireside Chat on 25 Oct 2023. Prof Bauchner is currently a Professor of Pediatrics and Public Health at Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine (BMC/BUSM).

With more than 18 years of experience in scientific journal publishing, we were fortunate to hear his take on how to reduce mistakes in manuscript submissions, what it means to be a first author, and what journals look out for when reviewing a manuscript.

Organised by the ACSI Recruitment & Development Domain, this session was facilitated by Assoc Prof Rupesh Agrawal, Domain Co-lead and Senior Consultant, NHG Eye Institute and held at CHI. 

On 12 October 2023, the NHG-LKCMedicine Academy of Clinician Scientists and Innovators brought together inspiring Clinician Scientists (CSs) and Innovators (CIs) to share about their ‘Journey from Clinicians to Scientists and Innovators’ at the Singapore Health & Biomedical Congress (SHBC) 2023. This track was led by A/Prof Sunny Wong and Asst Prof Yew Yik Weng and touched on topics such as tangible & intangible rewards in navigating through the research/innovation journey, how Innovation could help to translate research findings into healthcare improvements and translating research in population health.

The welcome address was given by Prof Leo Yee-Sin (ACSI Co-President) where she introduced ACSI and the overall landscape of research and innovation in Singapore and within NHG and LKCMedicine. Prof Roger Foo from NUHS Clinician Scientist (CS) Academy then went on to share what it takes to be a Clinician Scientist and NUHS CS Academy’s best practices in providing support in talent development.

Dr Bryan Tan, a CS from ACSI emphasized the impact of health services research. A/Prof Tey Hong Liang, Head of Research Division and Senior Consultant, National Skin Centre talked about sustainable healthcare through research-innovation-enterprise. Asst Prof Marie Loh from LKCMedicine, discussed on translating research in population health. The event concluded with a panel discussion featuring all the speakers.

The track had also provided a wonderful opportunity for us to celebrate outstanding CSs & CIs with an award ceremony for NHG Research & Innovation Awards (NRIA) 2023.

On 4 October 2023, the ACSI Research Symposium (formally known as NHG-LKCMedicine Research Symposium) was held at CSB Seminar Room 7-1, with the theme of Infectious Diseases. It is to promote scientific exchange amongst the cluster to cross fertilize ideas, promote interdisciplinary collaborations, and build research networks and teams. The opening remarks was given by Prof John Chambers and the symposium was moderated by Prof David Lye. 4 speakers were invited to share on their Infectious Diseases research. A/Prof Ng Oon Tek presented on applying whole-genome sequencing and methods development for antimicrobial resistance control while Asst Prof Keisuke Ejima shared on comprehending the Within-Host Response to Infection for Clinical and Public Health Practices. Dr Matthew Tay discussed the high-throughput phenotyping for therapeutics and vaccine antigen discovery while Prof Peter J. Schulz shared on the participatory surveillance for communities in the post-Covid landscape. The event concluded with a panel discussion featuring all the speakers and a networking session paired with light refreshments.

On 6 September, LKCMedicine and National Healthcare Group (NHG) launched the Academy of Clinician Scientists and Innovators (ACSI) to develop research and innovation capabilities of medical students, doctors, nurses and allied health professionals. Held at the Centre of Healthcare Innovation (CHI), senior leadership, clinicians and staff from both organisations came together to mark the formalisation of this initiative, co-led by LKCMedicine Dean and NTU Singapore’s Senior Vice-President for Health & Life Sciences Distinguished University Professor Joseph Sung and NHG Senior Advisor Professor Leo Yee Sin.

Find out more via the link here.

Dr Bryan Tan, Orthopaedic Surgery Consultant from Woodlands Health (WH) has been recognised with the individual-level Exemplary Innovator Award as part of the Public Sector Transformation (PST) Awards. This accolade underscores Dr Tan’s role in promoting excellence and innovation in healthcare through his Collaborative model of care between Orthopaedics and allied healthcare professionals trial (CONNACT) in knee osteoarthritis.

Dr Bryan Tan Receives the Exemplary Innovator Award at the Award Ceremony at the Public Service Week: Spark event.

In addition to this achievement, Dr Tan has been recently obtained a $5 million grant by the Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE) Network. This grant supports his Built Environment in Falls and ArthrITis (BE-FIT) Study, a project that investigates the urban environmental influences on health in Singapore’s dense urban population. 

We would like to extend our heartiest congratulations to Dr Tan for these significant achievements.