Change of leadership at Division of Graduate Medical Studies
Published: 30 Jun 2021
Associate Professor Clement Tan has been appointed as Director of the Division of Graduate Medical Studies (DGMS) at the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, with effect from 1 July 2021.
Assoc Prof Tan is Group Director for Ophthalmology at the National University Health System (NUHS), Senior Consultant at the Department of Ophthalmology, National University Hospital (NUH), and Associate Professor with the Department of Ophthalmology, NUS Medicine. He served as Head of Department of Ophthalmology, NUH and NUS from 2014 to 2020, and before that as Associate Designated Institutional Official for the NUHS Residency Programme. Assoc Prof Tan was also the inaugural Programme Director of the NUHS Ophthalmology Residency Programme. He chairs the MMed (Ophthalmology) Committee and is chief examiner for the exit examination in Ophthalmology. He also serves on the Assessment Committee for Ophthalmology under the Joint Committee on Specialist Training and the Ophthalmology Residency Advisory Committee.
Assoc Prof Tan will take over the reins from Assoc Prof Chen Fun Gee. Assoc Prof Chen has led many milestone achievements since 2010, when he was appointed Director of DGMS, and concurrently appointed the Co-Chairman of the Joint Committee on Specialist Training (JCST), the Chairman of Joint Committee of Family Medicine, as well as Chairman of Graduate Nursing Advisory Committee.
During his tenure with DGMS, he also worked with domain experts to launch the Graduate Diploma programmes in the fields of Mental Health and Palliative Medicine to upskill general practitioners to meet Singapore’s healthcare needs. As chair of the Joint Committee of Family Medicine, Assoc Prof Chen worked in close collaboration with the College of Family Medicine for the training and assessment of Family Medicine trainees in Singapore. This included the revamp of the Master of Medicine in Family Medicine to ensure that Family Medicine graduates are well equipped to meet the current and future needs of patients.
As the JCST Co-Chairman, Assoc Prof Chen worked with 35 specialties in Singapore to adopt the American Council of Graduate Medical Education-International (ACGME-I) system of training. Working together with the Ministry of Health, the existing postgraduate training programmes were modified in accordance with ACGME requirements. Working with the American Board of Medical Specialties, US Board examinations were also incorporated into the existing assessment systems in Singapore. Assoc Prof Chen chairs the Graduate Nursing Advisory Committee at NUS Medicine, which charts the direction of graduate nursing education in Singapore, including the Master of Nursing programme. He has played an instrumental role in the development of the curriculum, training, professional practices and licensing examinations for the multi-specialty track Advanced Practice Nurse programme. In addition, Assoc Prof Chen worked with the Singapore Pharmacy Board to develop tools for the assessment of pharmacy residents.
The School would like to express its heartfelt appreciation for Assoc Prof Chen’s leadership and dedicated contributions, and congratulate Assoc Prof Tan on his new appointment.
