Recent graduate Caitlin O’Hara receives the Lee Hsien Loong Award for Outstanding All-Round Achievement
Published: 29 Aug 2023
Our recent graduate, Caitlin Alsandria O’Hara, has received the prestigious Lee Hsien Loong Award for Outstanding All-Round Achievement (LHL-OAA) 2023.
The LHL-OAA is funded by an endowment donated by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in 2009. The award recognises outstanding academic and non-academic achievements of post-secondary students, particularly those who have made outstanding contributions to the community and demonstrated the spirit of innovation and enterprise.
Caitlin is a dynamic young woman, with exceptional interpersonal and leadership skills. Her unwavering dedication to serving the disadvantaged, and her ability to bring diverse individuals together to work towards a common goal sets her apart as a remarkable leader in her field. She graduated from NUS Medicine this year.
Passion to Serve
During her tenure as President of the 73rd Executive Committee of the Medical Society, Caitlin demonstrated effectively led a team comprising of 13 different subcommittee (directorates) in service of a 1,500 strong student body. As a large part of the year was affected by COVID-19, Caitlin and her executive committee worked tirelessly to care for the wellbeing of fellow students, as well as serving as a close liaison with the deanery and faculty to ensure that clinical training and education were as effective as possible despite the constraints of social distancing and limited clinical exposure.
One notable achievement during her term was the establishment of a student workgroup for mental well-being, which led to the successful piloting of a 6-month after-hours counseling service for medical, dental and nursing students. The positive outcomes of this pilot project have led the University to work towards extending this valuable service to all students of NUS.
Caitlin served as the first formal chairperson of the Tri-Medical Society alliance, a collaborative effort involving representatives from the three medical schools in Singapore. Under her leadership, the alliance organized the 4th National Medical Students Convention in partnership with the Singapore Medical Association (SMA). She also facilitated two open engagement sessions on junior doctor wellbeing with key stakeholders: one with Ministry of Health Senior Ministers of State and another with the Designated Institution Officers of the three healthcare clusters.
Service Leader
Throughout her time as a student, Caitlin was actively engaged in various local and international projects. As a first-year student, she served as the project director of one such humanitarian project that serves villagers in Pursat, Cambodia. Recognizing the significance of capacity building within the local community, Caitlin dedicated substantial effort to engaging, training, and empowering Cambodian medical and nursing students from the University of Puthisatra in Phnom Penh. Her vision was to ensure that the local team would be equipped to continue the important work once the Singaporean students departed.
During her gap year studying at Yale in the USA, Caitlin volunteered at the Haven Free clinic which provides free healthcare to undocumented immigrants. Upon her return to Singapore, she co-foundered a project outside of school called ‘BlockBox.’ This project aimed to address hypertension in a neighbourhood estate through a health befriender program and arts-based engagement. Her project was awarded a grant of $12,000 by the Ministry of Health (MOH), affirming the impact and importance of her work. As a third-year medical student, Caitlin assumed the role of Medical Society Director for Community Service, overseeing and supporting twenty-six diverse community service projects led by the student body.
Heart for patients
Associate Professor Malcolm Mahadevan, a senior consultant in the NUH Emergency Department, has had the opportunity to supervise many medical students over the years. Among them, Caitlin stood out to him as someone who consistently demonstrated a genuine concern for her patients, going above and beyond to help them even as a medical student. A specific incident that saw her quietly changing and providing a fresh plastic bag to a nauseous patient left a lasting impression on him. This seemingly small gesture spoke volumes about Caitlin’s empathy, compassion, and her innate desire to serve others—a quality that is crucial in the medical profession but often goes unnoticed or unappreciated. A/Prof Malcolm was deeply impressed by Caitlin’s ability to display genuine care and concern for her patients, regardless of the task’s level of glamour or significance.
Academics
Caitlin’s academic prowess extends beyond medicine, as she has a keen interest in various disciplines. In her first year as a student, she was accepted into the University Scholars Program and pursued coursework in Writing, Critical Thinking, and Emotional Psychology. During her gap year at Yale, she delved into subjects such as Medical Anthropology, Public Health, Social Entrepreneurship, Creative Writing, and Documentary Filmmaking.
Inquisitive Mind
In addition to her involvement in co-curricular activities and community service, Caitlin pursued research in areas she is deeply passionate about.
As a preclinical medical student, Caitlin assisted on a behavioural study on the impact of a digital health intervention on HIV and sexually transmitted infections uptake among sexual minority men. Noteworthy among these projects is Caitlin’s leadership in the International Sexual Health and Reproductive Health Survey during the COVID-19 pandemic (I-SHARE). Serving as a country co-lead, Caitlin played an instrumental role in recruiting 561 Singaporeans for the Singapore sample of this global survey. Leveraging her deep interest in reducing health disparities and advancing sexual and reproductive health, Caitlin and a fellow colleague published several papers examining intimate partner violence during COVID-19 in Singapore and the impact of COVID-19 on sexual behaviours. The findings were shared with community groups to inform targeted interventions.
Awards and Recognitions for Research
Caitlin has received well-deserved recognition for her leadership abilities and service through numerous awards. These include the NUS Medicine Health and Humanity Prize (2022), the NUS Student Life Award for Leadership (2021), Lee Foundation Professionalism award (2021), Team People’s Choice Award (Yale University Institute for Global Health Case Competition), and NUS Medicine Excellence Award (2018).
