LKCMedicine showcase at NTU Open House 2025

The Experimental Medicine Building (EMB) during the NTU Open House on 1 March 2025 was a flurry of activity as some 1,500 visitors turned up for the LKCMedicine experience.

Welcoming a larger turnout than previous years, parents and pre-university students were warmly greeted by dozens of our faculty, staff, students and alumni, all eager to showcase what LKCMedicine has to offer as a medical school ranked 85th in the world in the 2025 Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings.

The School first debuted in global university rankings in 2023 through the QS International University rankings when QS ranked it the highest among new medical schools globally.

While LKCMedicine’s Open House is an annual affair with booths, immersive learning activities, student-led tours, and talks, this year’s iteration had three new and insightful additions!

Here are this year’s highlights.

Discovering your potential at LKCMedicine

The “Introduction to LKCMedicine: Curriculum, Pedagogy & Student Life” talks held at the Learning Studio in the morning and afternoon were a must-attend for parents and aspiring medical students, with many needing to be ushered to the livestream venue to catch the talk. 

LKCMedicine Assistant Dean Professor Tham Kum Ying led the talk for both sessions. She was joined by final-year student Lim Rong and second-year student Emily Megan Ho in the morning, and final-year student Surya Varma Selvakumar and first-year student Lim Ying Jie, Eliza in the afternoon.

After elaborating on the NTU MBBS programme, Prof Tham detailed the School’s proven strengths and new offerings, announcing that the School will issue more scholarships and overseas travel support. She also highlighted data showing the immense residency success of the LKCMedicine alumni.

On enhancements to the curriculum, Prof Tham explained, “This MBBS programme has the great privilege of learning from the many things we did well during our partnership with Imperial College London as well as building on areas that could be improved on.”

To ensure students are future-ready, resilient and competent doctors, the expanded areas of LKCMedicine’s curriculum include a strong focus on artificial intelligence (AI), digital health and medical humanities as well as additional programmes to develop students’ research capabilities and international outlook, and foster a student’s personhood and professional identity throughout their medical education journey.

Emphasising the necessity of these new and enhanced components of the curriculum, Prof Tham said, “We don’t want to graduate somebody who is only a doctor on the surface, but not deep in their heart. This is not a doctor that the Singapore society and population need.”

This was reiterated by LKCMedicine Dean Distinguished University Professor Joseph Sung, who made a special appearance in the morning session. “One of the things I enjoy about practising medicine is that it always heals people in their time of need. As a doctor, with the heart in the right place, you can help your patients both physically and psychologically”.

Adding on with the student’s perspective, fifth-year student Lim Rong reflected, “Now that I am going into [medical] practice, I continue to appreciate how Team-Based Learning (TBL) works really well for me. In medicine, we learn to work in a team, with your fellow doctors, patients and their family. How to manage this dynamic and work as a team, is something that LKCMedicine teaches from the first year through TBL.”

Other Student Ambassadors spoke about the House System, strongly rooted peer-teaching culture within the tight-knit student body, and the vibrant student life that can take the shape of talent shows, Overseas  and Local Community Involvement Projects.

Prospective students as well as their parents kept the speakers engaged with questions about scholarships and financial aid, the School’s selection process, figuring out the suitability of medicine as a profession, and more.

The comprehensive introductory talk gave the attendees much to digest.

Raffles Institution student Sadak Advaith said, “It gave me a bit more insight into the admission process. I think it was quite important for me to know how the student life here is different from other schools. It assisted me in making the clear decision of where I want to apply for my medicine journey.”

He added, “What stands out in LKCMedicine is how supportive the students are of one another. That is a culture I appreciate.”

Echoing these sentiments, Catherine from Singapore Polytechnic, shared, “The talk provided clarity in helping me understand what the requirements are if I apply to medicine in the future, and it was interesting to hear about the House System and life beyond academics.”

For attendees eager to find out how they can hone their research capabilities while studying, the MedSoc Research Symposium, which was held later in the day, was both eye-opening and encouraging as it showcased the different pathways made available to LKCMedicine students.

Nurturing adaptable and empathetic doctors

LKCMedicine’s award-winning pedagogy and innovative curriculum was on full display during the Open House!

Throngs of prospective students flocked to the Seminar Room to try their hand at TBL with facilitators Dr Han Siew Ping and Ms Yang Lishan.

“I enjoyed TBL quite a lot because in lectures we are usually seated and unable to ask our questions, but during TBL you can check in with your group and immediately  ask the facilitator any questions you have,” enthused James Tan, a Catholic Junior College student. The 19-year-old had previously participated in LKCMedicine’s 2024 Anatomy Challenge and was drawn to the School’s use of technology in anatomy teaching.

Visitors also explored cutting-edge digital tools at the Digital Learning booth, a new Open House feature located at Level 3 Collaboration Space.

These included the AI-powered Clinical Chatbot, a real-time conversational simulation tool that enhances students' communication skills and medication knowledge; an Embryology Virtual Reality (VR), a 3D learning tool that visually demonstrates the stages of heart development; and the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) Simulator, a system that was designed to train students for real-world clinical workflows and navigating digital patient records efficiently and accurately.

The tours to the Anatomy & Science Practical labs that ran throughout the day were highly subscribed and added to the hands-on experience for attendees.

Being able to use plastinated specimens with a 3D anatomy app for the identification of the various human structures; participate in a microbiology exercise to identify bacteria; and observe the development of a live chick embryo left many in awe, including Mdm Resma Bte Gulzar Mohd, whose son is currently studying at Yishun Town Secondary School.

“The demo was so amazing and well-structured. It was easy to understand the use of plastinated and 3D specimens in anatomy studies, thanks to the staff explaining it to us slowly and simply.”

For another RI student, Nihidha, the exposure to lab work broadened her understanding of its significance in medicine. “It was interesting see and hold plastinated organs. Hearing about how studying bacteria helps doctors prescribe the right amount of medicine made me more aware of the real-life application of lab work,” she explained.

The HeART of Medicine exhibition featuring artworks by LKCMedicine students provided a reprieve from the buzz of the day’s activities, inviting visitors to contemplate the humanistic aspects of being a doctor. The artworks underscored the School’s focus of training doctors equipped with expert clinical and communication skills, and compassion for their patients.

Within the same vicinity, parents and prospective students could speak with our staff, students and alumni about admissions, scholarships and financial aid; student life, Scholarly Project and LKCMedSoc; and the LKCMedicine dual campus

Looking beyond medical school

For the first time, this year’s Open House featured two new talks – “Future Health Insights” and “From Campus to Clinic: Stories from LKCMedicine Alumni”. These talks were specially curated to provide  attendees with a deeper understanding of the significance of pursuing medicine at LKCMedicine, and how the profession impacts lives and can help alleviate some of the global challenges of the 21^st century.

LKCMedicine Associate Professor of Health Psychology and Behavioural Medicine Konstadina Griva delivered an illuminating talk about climate health. She urged everyone present to assess the lens with which they view climate change-related health issues, including mental health concerns.

 

The heartfelt and candid sharing by alumni, Drs Gabriel Wong (Class of 2018), Elijah Chong (Class of 2022) and Hima Premnadh (Class of 2022), was a fitting way to wrap up a full day of activities. Attendees, gathered at the Collaboration Space, were engaged by our alumni’s first-hand accounts of navigating medical school and transitioning from medical student to a full-fledged doctor.

Sharing how LKCMedicine has nurtured him into the doctor he is now, Dr Wong, a family physician at National Healthcare Group Polyclinics, said, “The clinical communication aspect of LKCMedicine was never too much. As a doctor, I speak to new parents who bring their babies for  jaundice check-up and reassure them; I help middle-aged patients dealing with chronic conditions and encourage them to keep managing their health; and I comfort patients who are receiving palliative care and their family members. All these communication skills I have learned at LKCMedicine have really helped me…it is their patient-centred approach that has shaped my journey so far.”

The alumni, along with LKCMedicine Assistant Dean for Family Medicine Associate Professor Tang Wern Ee and Assistant Dean for Clinical Communication Dr Tanya Tierney, answered visitors’ remaining questions that included striking a work-life balance, pursuing research as a doctor and the integration of AI into the profession.

LKCMedicine esprit de corps

The successful Open House, which had a host of activities running seamlessly and concurrently from 11am to 7pm, was made possible because of the dedication and enthusiasm of LKCMedicine faculty, staff, alumni and student volunteers.

This was very much evident at the main LKCMedicine booth at the foyer of the School of Biological Sciences (SBS), which saw brisk traffic throughout the day. Prof Sung, LKCMedicine Vice-Dean (Education) Associate Professor Faith Chia, LKCMedicine Vice-Dean (International Relations) Associate Professor Yusuf Ali, LKCMedicine Chief Operating Officer Dr Serene Ng, and several Assistant Deans were on-hand to help other faculty, staff, students and alumni to attend to the crowds, taking turns to field prospective students’ queries. NTU President Professor Ho Teck Wah and Provost Professor Ling San also dropped by to chat with the LKCMedicine team.

Like clockwork, our Student Ambassadors guided six tours from SBS to EMB over the course of the day; keen to share their experiences at LKCMedicine and allay any concerns about choosing medicine as a career.

“Being a Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) alumnus and having been in their position before, I was truly happy to see a lot more polytechnic students. It is a really meaningful opportunity to pay it forward by sharing with them, even my juniors from NYP, what I know about LKCMedicine and the application process,” remarked Year 1 student Khayr Eddin Bin Ahmad.

Similarly, his fellow batchmate Eunice Khong found it very fulfilling to share her experience at LKCMedicine. “Many of [the prospective students] get their information from external or online sources so I am glad to answer their questions about student life and provide a more holistic view of life as a student.

Thank you to the LKCMedicine community for making LKCMedicine Open House 2025 a memorable one!