The National Medical Excellence Awards 2017

Published: 24 Aug 2017

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Congratulations, Professor Arijit Biswas (National Outstanding Clinician) and Associate Professor Chong Yap Seng (National Outstanding Clinician-Scientist)!

“For his outstanding contributions and achievements in clinical work that have advanced the safety and quality of obstetric care”

Professor Arijit Biswas led the Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (O&G), National University Hospital (NUH) for 17 years, from 2000 to 2016. Under his leadership, the Department has grown its obstetric service to one of international standards, providing high quality patient care and maintaining an excellent safety record.

Professor Biswas has been instrumental in improving obstetric care for women both antenatally and during labour. He introduced fetal ECG (STAN) monitoring in labour, which has now been incorporated into routine practice in the delivery suites at NUH. He developed and introduced new ultrasound services at the hospital, including the nuchal translucency screening scan and three-dimensional ultrasound scan. He has also formed vital partnerships with rheumatologists and paediatric cardiologists to initiate new joint clinical services for highrisk women with recurrent pregnancy loss and fetal cardiac abnormalities respectively, allowing these women to benefit from one-stop, multi-disciplinary care.

Professor Biswas also contributed significantly to helping women with high-risk pregnancies or fetal abnormalities to receive cutting-edge care by introducing novel and effective treatments with a particular focus on prenatal intervention and fetal therapy procedures. These include inutero treatment for select cases of fetal hydrops, in-utero blood transfusions for severely anaemic foetuses, and in-utero selective fetoscopic laser ablation of anastomotic vessels for twin-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS), among others. Professor Biswas also performed the first radio-frequency ablation procedure for a monochorionic twin pregnancy in Singapore.

Aside from the clinical advances that he has championed, Professor Biswas also ensured that clinical processes in the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at NUH kept pace with time. Professor Biswas designed, developed and implemented the Department’s first database of maternity records that allowed for accurate record-keeping and epidemiological research. Importantly, the database also allowed for the automated calculation of maternity servicesrelated clinical quality indicators that have helped to maintain the hospital’s high standards of care.

Professor Biswas continues to support the Department at NUH as the Director of Clinical Services and Head of the Fetal Care Centre. He is a dedicated leader, who personally supervises the running of the Obstetric Services at NUH, provides regular on-the-floor consultant cover, and remains accessible even when he is not on call.

Professor Biswas is also passionate about teaching and training the next generation of doctors and obstetrics and gynaecology specialists. He has also been an invaluable mentor to many residents and junior colleagues. For his good work with residents, he was awarded the “NUH Postgraduate Teaching Excellence Award” in December 2012.

Professor Biswas is well recognised as an expert in the field of Maternal Fetal Medicine both nationally and internationally. Apart from holding numerous leadership and advisory positions at NUH and NUS, Professor Biswas is the Chairman of both the national O&G Resident Advisory Committee and the Clinical Advisory Group on Zika Virus Infection and Pregnancy at the Ministry of Health and member of the Specialist Accreditation Board, Singapore. He was also previously President of the College of O&G and a Council Member of the Academy of Medicine Singapore. Professor Biswas has also published more than 137 papers in international peer-reviewed journals with a citation count of 1852 and an H-index of 22, and maintains active research interests to date.

For his outstanding contributions and achievements in clinical work that have advanced the safety and quality of obstetric care, Professor Arijit Biswas is awarded the 2017 National Outstanding Clinician Award.

“For his outstanding contributions towards improving population health in Singapore through the study of health and disease in early life, and its potential impact in later life.”

Associate Professor Chong Yap Seng is a clinician-scientist with a special interest in fetal growth and early development. His research seeks to benefit population health in Singapore, both for the current and the future generations.

Associate Professor Chong and his team set up the Growing Up in Singapore Towards healthy Outcomes (GUSTO) Study in 2009. GUSTO is one of the most comprehensive longitudinal cohort studies ever conducted in Singapore or anywhere else in the world, involving mothersto-be and their children. GUSTO is aimed at studying the growth and development of individuals from early life to discover new prevention and early intervention strategies to optimise health. The study is a multi-organisational effort that harnesses research talent from the National University Health System, KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, A*STAR’s Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences, and other academic partners locally. GUSTO also collaborates with international researchers from New Zealand and the United Kingdom, among others.

GUSTO researchers recruited over 1200 Singaporean women who volunteered to participate in the birth cohort study between 2009 and 2010. These volunteers are followed from early pregnancy through delivery and as their children grow up, to provide valuable insight into the early determinants of health and disease. Supported by the Translational Clinical Research Flagship Programme grant from the National Medical Research Council, Ministry of Health, GUSTO has been cited to be one of the leading birth cohort studies in the world with some of the most detailed assessments and analyses of child development, cognition and physical health ever established.

GUSTO has generated over 140 scientific publications since 2012, and the findings have also directly influenced health policy and clinical practice in Singapore. GUSTO researchers discovered that the prevalence of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) was much higher than expected and showed that a universal testing policy for GDM would be more cost effective than high-risk screening. They submitted a white paper to MOH in September 2015, which led to MOH recommending universal testing for GDM to all doctors in Singapore.

GUSTO has also been lauded by international reviewers and journal editors for the bold and innovative approaches their researchers have taken in carrying out their studies. For example, their use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as early as one week of life for newborn babies has allowed them to study the effects of maternal health, nutrition, and mental state on the baby’s brain and body in a way that no other study has been able to on a large scale. GUSTO has incorporated many new medical technologies like genomics, epigenomics, and metabolomics to bring deeper understanding into the biological factors affecting the long-term health of Singaporeans.

GUSTO’s research work was expanded further when the Singapore PREconception Study of long-Term maternal and child Outcomes (S-PRESTO) cohort study was funded in 2014. This is one of the first and most comprehensive studies of women planning to conceive to be launched in the world and seeks to understand how the health of women before pregnancy affects both the health of the mothers and their babies.

As a thought leader in the field, Associate Professor Chong has been invited to give numerous lectures and keynotes on the topic, and has been selected to a number of prestigious committees and consultations at the international level. These include organisations such as the Nature Publishing Group, World Health Organisation, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. With his colleagues, he continues to drive the research work and publications in this area, with his citation index rising from 68 in 2008 to 501 in 2016.

Besides research, Associate Professor Chong remains a busy obstetrician who is noted for his efforts to promote natural birth and breastfeeding in Singapore. He also led the Medical Education Unit for 10 years, helping to develop teaching skills and the curriculum in the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, where he is currently a Vice-Dean promoting strategic collaborations with academic partners around the world. Finally, Associate Professor Chong is the Executive Director of A*STAR’s Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences where he is working with the food and nutrition industry to translate some of his team’s research into viable products.

For his outstanding contributions towards improving population health in Singapore through the study of health and disease in early life, and its potential impact in later life, Associate Professor Chong Yap Seng is awarded the 2017 National Outstanding Clinician Scientist Award.

Ministry of Health, 24 August 2017

News Coverage

• Lianhe Zaobao, 25 August 2017, p10