A/Prof Mahesh Choolani and Prof Tan Huay Cheem conferred National Medical Excellence Awards 2023
Published: 31 Aug 2023
Left—A/Prof Mahesh Choolani, Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at NUS Medicine, and Head and Senior Consultant at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, National University Hospital (NUH); Right—Prof Tan Huay Cheem, Professor of Medicine at NUS Medicine, and Senior Consultant at the Department of Cardiology and Senior Adviser, National University Heart Centre, Singapore, and Chairman, Singapore Heart Foundation
Two faculty members of the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS Medicine), received the National Medical Excellence Awards (NMEA) this year, which recognises the efforts of outstanding clinicians, clinician scientists and other healthcare professionals for their contributions. It acknowledges their achievements in advancing healthcare, improving the standards of patient safety and driving research and education, which ultimately improve people’s lives. Mr Ong Ye Kung, Minister for Health, gave out the awards at the NMEA ceremony held on 31 August 2023.
Associate Professor Mahesh Choolani, Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at NUS Medicine, and Head and Senior Consultant at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, National University Hospital (NUH) was conferred the National Outstanding Clinician Scientist Award 2023, for his immense dedication, passion, unwavering commitment to developing the clinician scientist community in Singapore, and his outstanding leadership in revolutionising the obstetrics and gynaecology field.
A/Prof Mahesh Choolani received his award from Health Minister, Mr Ong Ye Kung, at the NMEA 2023 ceremony. (Credit: Ministry of Health, Singapore)
A clinician scientist with a long track record in clinical and basic science research, A/Prof Choolani’s main research goal is in translational medicine through the development of advanced technology that addresses the unmet need for faster and more accurate diagnostic testing for precision healthcare of Asian women. He has been actively pursuing technology for the isolation of cell-based foetal DNA non-invasively from maternal blood for prenatal diagnosis of chromosomal abnormality. He introduced and validated non-invasive prenatal testing/screening using cell-free fetal DNA in the plasma fraction of maternal blood. This liquid biopsy assay is an excellent screening tool for three common foetal trisomies (21, 18, 13) and is currently offered to pregnant women in Singapore and the region.
A/Prof Choolani’s work has been well-recognised by his colleagues in the field locally, regionally and internationally, and also by industry partners. Over the years, he has attained more than $20 million in grant funding as Principal Investigator, and more than $15 million in grant funding as Co-Principal Investigator. This funding has translated to more than 220 peer-reviewed publications including in top tier journals such as The Lancet, Nature, and Cell, with over 12,000 citations and a Hirsch index of 59. He has seven patents with six of them licensed by the industry.
A/Prof Choolani founded INEX Innovate in 2006, as a women’s health diagnostic company offering molecular tests and developing new point-of-care diagnostics in the women’s health space. In recognition of INEX Innovate, the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises awarded him the Entrepreneur of the Year 2022 Award for Established Entrepreneur (Overall Winner). Over the years, he has worked tirelessly to establish a community of clinician scientists beginning with the establishment of the NUS Clinician Scientist Unit in 2006 and continuing with his active involvement in the National University Health System (NUHS) Clinician Scientist Academy. A/Prof Choolani is now serving his second term as President of the College of Clinician Scientist, Academy of Medicine, Singapore.
He has held the appointment of Chairman or President in several professional societies, including the Asia-Pacific Conference for Fetal Therapy (2015 to 2016), the International Fetal Medicine and Surgery Society (2018) and the International Fetal Transplantation and Immunology Society (2018). He is currently the President of the International Society for Prenatal Diagnosis (ISPD), and the recently appointed President-at-Large for the International Fetal Medicine and Surgery Society (IFMSS). His goal in these societies is to cultivate a cadre of clinician scientists working in his own field and the broader field of medicine, and to build an eco-system to drive scientific medicine in Asia.
Professor Tan Huay Cheem, Professor of Medicine at NUS Medicine, and Senior Consultant at the Department of Cardiology and Senior Adviser, National University Heart Centre, Singapore, and Chairman, Singapore Heart Foundation, was conferred the National Outstanding Clinician Award 2023, for his excellence in clinical service and outstanding leadership and stewardship in revolutionising the cardiology service in Singapore and elevating it to world-class standards.
Prof Tan Huay Cheem received his award from Health Minister, Mr Ong Ye Kung, at the NMEA 2023 ceremony. (Credit: Ministry of Health, Singapore)
An internationally renowned cardiologist who is well-regarded for his clinical acumen, procedural competence and teaching qualities, Prof Tan’s medical career of 35 years in the public sector, which includes 18 years in positions of leadership, is marked by two legacies: service and mentorship. He was the Founding Director of the National University Heart Centre, Singapore (NUHCS), an established national centre known for its comprehensive clinical services, structured educational programmes, and research innovation. Under his leadership, NUHCS adopted an inter-departmental, barrier-free, and patient-centric approach to provide seamless multidisciplinary clinical care.
Prof Tan’s greatest achievement lies in the management of patients with heart attacks. He left his mark in the treatment of patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) at NUHCS by setting up the primary (or emergency) percutaneous coronary intervention service in 1997, which became a 24/7 service in 2001. He initiated a clinical quality improvement project to reduce door-to-balloon time in 2007, which led to NUHCS being awarded the MOH’s National Clinical Excellence Team Award in 2011 and resulted in its adoption as a quality indicator for all other hospitals in Singapore.
In 2017, he conceived the idea of the Western STEMI network where all patients with heart attacks in the western cluster of Singapore will be directed straight to NUHCS via an ambulance to save time for maximal salvage of damaged heart muscle. In 2018, he also set up the Cardiogenic Shock Centre at NUHCS with its attendant multidisciplinary team capable of treating heart patients in the highest risk group for mortality and morbidity. NUHCS now holds the record of the country’s shortest door-to-balloon time, highest volume of patients treated annually, and lowest mortality rate.
Prof Tan has received many accolades in his illustrious career. These include the Chien Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award in 2023, Singapore Cardiac Society Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022, and Asian Interventional Cardiovascular Therapeutics (India) Golden Lights of Asia Award in 2012, which was awarded to him for elevating Asia to the world map of interventional cardiology. He was also the longest serving President of the Asia-Pacific Society of Interventional Cardiology. Prof Tan is also an excellent mentor who has taught generations of medical students, cardiology trainees and interventional cardiology fellows. He is an active researcher who has published more than 200 papers in international peer-reviewed journals, authored 18 book chapters and is the Founding Editor of the AsiaIntervention journal, which is PubMed-listed.
Adjunct Associate Professor Brenda Ang, Clinical Senior Lecturer at NUS Medicine, Clinical Director, Department of Infection Prevention and Control, Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH), and Emeritus Consultant, Department of Infectious Diseases, TTSH, was conferred the National Outstanding Clinician Mentor Award 2023, for her tireless dedication, passion and unwavering commitment towards championing the areas of Infectious Diseases (ID) and Infection Control and nurturing successive generations of ID clinicians. Over the past few decades, she has been synonymous with Infectious Disease and Infection Control in TTSH, and the award is a recognition of her efforts, having spent the past 30 years developing ID as a specialty in Singapore and advocating a culture of good infection control practices at institutional and individual levels. Through the relentless efforts of A/Prof Ang and her contemporaries, ID and infection prevention and control have become an integral and crucial part of our healthcare services.
Adjunct Professor Julian Thumboo from the Department of Medicine at NUS Medicine, Senior Consultant, Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Singapore General Hospital (SGH), Research Director and Director Health Services Research Unit, SGH, and Advisor, SingHealth Centre for Population Health Research and Implementation, was conferred the National Outstanding Clinician Mentor Award 2023, for his outstanding contributions in guiding and mentoring clinicians and researchers, imparting knowledge, and instilling compassion, commitment, integrity, and a passion to learn. He has mentored a generation of rheumatologists, some of whom have become mentors themselves, just as Prof Thumboo was inspired by his own mentors to become one. To ensure there are proper structures and environment to facilitate mentoring, Prof Thumboo initiated several programmes at the national and institution levels, such as the SingHealth Nurturing Clinician Researcher Scheme, benefitting more than those he mentored personally over the years.
