News In Brief: News roundup December 2020

LKCMedicine students emerged runners-up in Khon Kaen University International Challenge of Emergency Medicine 2020

Six LKCMedicine students emerged 1st and 2nd runners-up in this year’s Khon Kaen University International Challenge of Emergency Medicine, held from 5 to 13 December. 

This year’s competition theme is: Common Problems in Emergency. The competition involves knowledge in basic sciences, clinical knowledge, and clinical skills. Medical students from different countries pitted against each other in a test of their abilities to respond to scenarios seen in Emergency Medicine.

The six students were split into two teams and participated in the competition against 25 teams. 
The students include Team Eat Bao (Year 5 students Samuel Fong, Wong Wei Cong, and Year 4 student Jaye Chan) and Team BlueBook (Year 4 students Ian Koh, Zheng Yubo, and Jacy Mok). 

Both teams were led by LKCMedicine Assistant Dean of Year 5 Associate Professor Tham Kum Ying and Dr David Teng from Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH). To prepare for the competition, the teams were mentored over two months by Dr Teng and several doctors from TTSH’s Emergency Department. 

NTU Optical Bio-Imaging Centre (NOBIC) launch

In November, LKCMedicine and Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering (SCELSE) launched the joint initiative NTU Optical Bio-Imaging Centre (NOBIC). 

Headed by Professor Peter Török, who holds a joint appointment at LKCMedicine and SCELSE, and LKCMedicine's Associate Professor of Behavioural Neuroscience Suresh Jesuthasan, NOBIC aims to support researchers at LKCMedicine and at SCELSE by offering comprehensive expertise in optical imaging and microscopy. 

The NOBIC team will be enhancing and improving the existing services available to the School and SCELSE, including sample preparation for optical imaging, fluorescent labelling, advanced microscopy and micro-spectroscopy techniques, microscopy image processing and analysis, as well as designing and building custom optical instruments to meet the needs of specific imaging experiments of individual research groups. For more information about NOBIC, please visit http://www.lkcmedicine.ntu.edu.sg/Research/ResearchFacilities/Pages/Advanced-Optical-Bio-Imaging-Platform.aspx

Start-ups and SMEs can test bed their innovative solutions to meet healthcare needs with CHI 

To strengthen Singapore's healthcare transformation, the Centre for Healthcare Innovation (CHI) has launched the CHI Start-up Enterprise Link (CHISEL) on 23 November 2020.

The platform will accelerate the adoption of near-market-ready and fit-for-mainstream-use healthcare innovations, bringing them a step closer to benefit patients at healthcare institutions (HCIs). By using a sandbox approach, CHISEL will support and enable start-ups and small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to demonstrate the value of its innovations in a simulated and/or clinical setting through a stage-by-stage approach.

CHI's Clinical Director Associate Professor Wong Hon Tym said CHI believes in driving innovation and co-learning across industries.CHISEL aims to host various marketplaces that innovators will have access to, showcasing their work to a wide healthcare community. Outcomes from test-bedding in the marketplace can be shared with other HCIs for procurement options after a successful evaluation.

This year, CHISEL's inaugural marketplace involves the participation of three of Singapore's largest public hospitals: Singapore General Hospital, National University Hospital and Tan Tock Seng Hospital. 

To shortlist start-ups and SMEs, an open call for proposals kicked off recently. Called "Healthcare InnoMatch", this open call is co-organised by CHI and Temasek Foundation and aims to identify solutions that can address some of Singapore's key healthcare challenges. This will be funded up to $1.2 million by Temasek Foundation. Companies have till 12 February 2021 to submit their solutions here: https://chisel.agorize.com/en/challenges/healthcare-innomatch-2021. 

LKCMedicine participates in NParks' Trees of the World 2020

On 27 November, LKCMedicine participated in Trees of the World 2020, an outreach programme hosted by NParks, as part of LKCMedicine's 10th anniversary celebrations. The event included decorating a tree planted in Botanic Gardens and the School chose to use this opportunity to celebrate and reflect the School's values and pillars of support over the past ten years. Before the event, students and researchers were invited to paint what medicine means to them on test tubes, while staff were invited to paint on light bulbs. 

The tree was then decorated by team members from the Communications & Outreach Department with the painted items, along with a symbolic microscope, stethoscope and two hands holding a puzzle piece to represent the three pillars of LKCMedicine – Research, Education and Partnerships – and other decorations in the corporate colours of the School. The decorated tree will be up for public viewing in Singapore Botanic Gardens from 5 December 2020 to 3 January 2021.

LKCMedicine at Singapore in ASEAN Conference for Young Scientists

On 26 November, LKCMedicine PhD candidate Wee Soon Keong from the laboratory of Associate Professor of Human and Microbial Genetics Eric Yap represented Singapore in the ASEAN Conference for Young Scientists. In this hybrid onsite-virtual meeting hosted by Vietnam, he presented on "Antimicrobial resistance in the environment: Early lessons on global health challenges in ASEAN". He shared on his work in antimicrobial resistance and proposed methods on how to tackle this issue together, such as through capacity building, environmental surveillance and One-Health studies. 

The two-day conference which was held from 25 to 26 November was participated by delegates from ASEAN Member States and graced by H.E. Dr Kung Phoak, Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN. He was humbled to be part of ASEAN Young Scientists Network and to meet like-minded individuals who are making their research impact on the communities around them!

LKCMedicine and Imperial Launch Digital Transform MedEd

In the run-up to the Transform MedEd conference in November 2021, LKCMedicine and Imperial have launched Digital Transform MedEd, a series of bi-monthly symposiums, and online poster presentations.

On 25 November, LKCMedicine Assistant Professor of Evidence Based Medicine Lorainne Tudor Car led on the most recent Digital Transform MedEd's symposium "Global challenges, local solutions: evidence-based education for future healthcare"  together with Research Fellow Dr Kathleen Leedham-Green from Imperial's Medical Education Research Unit. This symposium discussed the strategies to synthesise evidence in medical education and explored different approaches and challenges in using the evidence to inform educational practice. 

The speakers were introduced by Imperial Professor of Medical Education Sue Smith, the Q&A was facilitated by LKCMedicine Vice-Dean (Education) Professor Jennifer Cleland. The symposium was well received with many questions from the audience and an excellent turnout with 77 attendees from 17 countries worldwide.

LKCMedicine MedSoc: Singapore Medical Society of Australia and New Zealand (SMSANZ) AGM

On 18 November, LKCMedSoc hosted the Presidents and Vice-presidents of the Singapore Medical Society of Australia and New Zealand (SMSANZ). SMSANZ is the peak representative body of all Singaporean medical students studying in Australia and New Zealand. During the meeting, the respective MedSocs discussed areas of collaboration between our medical schools – both virtually and in-person (post-restrictions) – that would benefit both LKCMedicine students and SMSANZ members. Some of these include jointly organising skills workshops, language classes and CIPs.

This year, LKCMedSoc's drive is to build stronger relationships with other medical societies, particularly in light of the impact of COVID-19 on medical students. They believe that in doing so, other MedSocs would be able to better support fellow Singaporeans, as well as to expand opportunities for everyone regardless of where they study. LKCMedSoc looks forward to a fruitful and sustainable partnership with SMSANZ and its members.