News: Keeping scientific conversations going amid Covid-19

​

By: Sufian Bin Suderman, Assistant Manager, Research Administration and Support Services

Just a year ago, the LKCMedicine Research Administration and Support Services (RASS) office was planning numerous research seminars and conferences for early 2020. Then, Covid-19 emerged, catching us all off guard. With safe distancing and other precautionary measures made mandatory following the two-month Circuit Breaker period, traditional teaching methods had to be altered and thus transited online. 

When research seminars and conferences go online

During the Circuit Breaker, Vice-Dean of Research Professor Lim Kah Leong and Associate Professor of Regenerative Medicine Ray Dunn launched a weekly online LKCMedicine Scientific Seminar Series. The weekly series, held mostly on Wednesday afternoons, provided a platform to showcase the research excellence of the LKCMedicine community, from PhD student to senior Professor. 

Heeding NTU's clarion call on digital innovation, RASS also launched the monthly "Learn with LKCMedicine" online series. For this lecture series, anyone in the School could present on a topic beneficial to staff and faculty. 

For instance, Nanyang Assistant Professor and Provost's Chair in Medicine Christine Cheung presented on personalising professional development in research. LKCMedicine Medical Library's manager Ms Rebecca David and NTU Library's senior librarian Ms Padma Muralidharan also described new digital strategies to engage faculty for enhanced teaching and learning experience.

During the series, we also learnt more about the work that our colleagues do at the Medical Education Research and Scholarship Unit and Educational Development team. They shared how their team adapted various aspects of Team-Based Learning, Clinical Skills and Student Welfare when faced with Covid-19.

Lessons learnt from online research seminars and conferences

Both digital lecture series have catalysed meaningful scientific dialogues, forged new collaborations, promoted the School's experimental capacities and strengthened ties among the diverse LKCMedicine community. 

Besides the two new lecture series, we continue to organise successful and well-attended online networking sessions and workshops that on occasion extend across time zones.  

For example, on 21 May, LKCMedicine and Imperial College London in partnership with National Healthcare Group (NHG) and National Centre for Infectious Diseases organised a workshop to exchange notes on the activities at their respective institutions with regard to research and clinical management of Covid-19. The workshop was attended by some 150 participants including clinicians, clinician-scientists and researchers from Imperial and LKCMedicine. 

Besides the workshop, LKCMedicine and NHG also held the first 'Covid-19 and Beyond: NHG – LKCMedicine Networking Session' through Zoom. The networking session, which aimed to further improve collaborations between NHG and LKCMedicine in managing and tackling diseases and illnesses, was attended by about 100 researchers and faculty from NHG and NTU.

The online seminars have proven to be overwhelmingly popular. To date, we have hosted about 30 sessions. On average there were 50 participants and on occasions, more than 100. In addition to our own faculty and staff, collaborators from A*Star and NHG, including senior management members have also attended these seminars. 

Moving towards the future

Going forward, there will be many more seminars and workshops. In the pipeline will be more opportunities to feature our PhD students as it is crucial for them to develop excellent communication and presentation skills for their future careers. 

Overall, these ongoing conversations will go far in fostering a research culture at LKCMedicine where ideas and knowledge are shared across disciplines on an open platform.

Nevertheless, I look forward to the time when we can welcome our overseas collaborators in-person at our dual campus for conferences and meetings, as well as in-person research seminars and workshops for our LKCMedicine colleagues.