News: Awards galore for LKCMedicine

By Andy Kwan, Writer, Communications and Outreach

It was a celebratory season for LKCMedicine faculty, staff and students during the past months as several of them clinched awards recognising them for their outstanding work in research and contributions to medical education. Our heartiest congratulations to all of them for doing LKCMedicine proud! 

Ian Hart Award 2022

Leading the pack is Vice-Dean (Education) Professor Jennifer Cleland who clinched the 2022 Ian Hart Award for Innovation in Medical Education Award, one of three major international prizes in the field. 

Prof Cleland, who is also LKCMedicine’s Lead for Medical Education Research and Scholarship Unit, received the award and the prize amount of S$5,000 at the Opening Ceremony of the Ottawa Conference held in Lyon, France, on 27 August. The biennial prize is made possible through financial support from the Hart family.  

Prof Cleland is recognised as a researcher, educator, mentor and collaborator with global influence. The award is a culmination of her 20-plus years of dedication to medical education research and capacity building. Read more about the award here.

National Medical Excellence Awards 2022 

A/Prof Ng Kee Chong (left) and A/Prof Lim Poh Lian receiving their awards from Minister for Health Mr Ong Ye Kung (photo credit: NUHS)

LKCMedicine Adjunct Associate Professors Ng Kee Chong and Lim Poh Lian received top honours at the annual National Medical Excellence Awards organised by the Ministry of Health. Both were honoured with the National Outstanding Clinician Award which was presented by Minister for Health Mr Ong Ye Kung at a ceremony held on 26 September.  

The national-level awards acknowledge the efforts of clinicians, clinician scientists and other healthcare professionals for their contributions in advancing healthcare, improving the standards of patients’ safety and quality of care which ultimately improve people's lives.   

A/Prof Ng, Chairman, Medical Board and a senior consultant at the Department of Emergency Medicine at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, won the award for his unwavering dedication to paediatric emergency medicine, his contributions in advancing clinical education in maternal and child health, and his steadfast leadership in the face of crises.

A/Prof Lim, a senior consultant at Tan Tock Seng Hospital and the Head of the Travellers' Health and Vaccination Clinic at the hospital, is recognised for her outstanding leadership and stewardship in advancing medical excellence in travel medicine, vaccination services, and infectious disease outbreak response and preparedness in Singapore and internationally.  

Click here to watch a video of the award winners.

NHG Teaching Excellence Awards 2022

LKCMedicine faculty and alumni were recognised for their passion, commitment and efforts in teaching students, juniors and fellow colleagues at the National Healthcare Group’s (NHG) Teaching Excellence Awards 2022. LKCMedicine Associate Professor Sanghvi Kaushal Amit, Principal Lead for Surgery, won the NHG Education Leaders Award, while three of our alumni – Dr Rachel Lim Wei Shan, Dr Stewart Retnam and Dr Wee Lin – received the NHG Teaching Award for Junior Doctors. 

Tan Kah Kee Young Inventors Competition 2022

Postdoctoral fellows Dr Zeng Jialiu (far left) and Dr Lo Chih Hung (second from left) with their collaborators

On 17 September, LKCMedicine postdoctoral fellows Dr Lo Chih Hung and Dr Zeng Jialiu won the Silver Award and prize of S$5,000 for the development of FlexiPalms in the Tan Kah Kee Young Inventors Competition 2022. The competition seeks to stimulate creativity among the young generation and to promote scientific and technological research in Singapore. Their work emerged as one of the top entries in the open category among 313 entries. 

Dr Lo and Dr Zeng, together with their collaborators in NUS Biomedical Engineering and N.1 Institute for Health, co-led the development of FlexiPalms which is a hand-targeted auxiliary personal protective equipment (PPE) for intervention of fomite transmission of viruses. A unique palmar-side hand protector designed to be skin-conforming and transparent, it serves primarily as a barrier to microbial contamination. Their work holds potential in bolstering PPE sustainability in pandemics such as COVID-19.  

This study was also published in Bioengineering & Translational Medicine. Dr Lo is a Dean’s Postdoctoral Fellow in Assistant Professor Anna Barron Lab and Dr Zeng is a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow in Vice-Dean (Research) Professor Lim Kah Leong Lab.

NTU 3MT People's Choice Award
 

Year 3 PhD student Dr Arun Kumar Kaliya Perumal won the People’s Choice Award at the NTU Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Finale for his presentation titled “Fishing for a Cure”. This is a competition that challenges graduate students to describe their research in a clear, engaging, and jargon-free manner using just one slide in three minutes. 

LKCMedicine participated in this competition for the first time. Dr Arun’s presentation focused on finding a cure for heterotopic ossification, a rare bone forming disorder that he is working on. He is based in the laboratory of LKCMedicine Professor Philip Ingham.

INEX-OSCAR Award

LKCMedicine PhD student Dr Tan Yijia Bryan clinched the Best Presentation Award in the Clinical / Health Population Research category at the INEX-OSCAR Award organised by the College of Clinician-Scientists, Academy of Medicine Singapore. Dr Tan won for his presentation on “Collaborative Model of Care Between Orthopaedics and Allied Health Professionals (CONNACT): Effectiveness-Implementation Hybrid Trial”.

SingHealth Duke-NUS Education Conference 2022
 

Year 5 student Lau Kai Yuan won the first prize for his scholarly work in medical education at the SingHealth Duke-NUS Education Conference 2022. His e-poster titled “Very Short Answer Questions (VSAQs) in Team-Based Learning (TBL)” compared the effects of using VSAQs and Single Best Answers on peer elaboration and knowledge retentions in TBL. 

This award signifies that involvement in medical education research is not just for faculty and staff. Medical students are arguably the most directly affected by innovations in education and they have much to contribute to shaping teaching and learning though their early scholarly endeavours.  

Discover URECA@NTU Poster Competition 

Year 4 student Lim Rong took the runner-up prize at the annual Discover URECA@NTU Poster Exhibition and Competition in the Medical and Biomedical Sciences category. This event is a platform for existing URECA students to showcase their research work to different groups of audiences and exchange research ideas through poster presentation.