Interdisciplinary Teams, Out-of-the-Box Solutions

By Kee Xiang Lee Jamie,
MBBS Phase IV

The Medical Grand Challenge (MGC) is a student-led medical innovation programme. Together with students from other faculties, medical students identify unmet healthcare needs and explore creative and out-of-the-box solutions to address these issues.

This competition runs for a year, starting with a soft launch in August 2016 and culminating in a final judging cum showcase night in August 2017, when projects will be scored by a panel of judges for business strategy, creativity, design quality and healthcare impact. Winners will be awarded $20,000 worth of cash prizes.

Based on the idea that all discoveries begin with a single question, the MGC intends to nurture a culture of curiosity in our undergraduates. We hope to encourage creativity and entrepreneurship and build a generation of healthcare professionals who not only seek to serve, but seek to improve. Given the immense value of multi-disciplinary work, the MGC also seeks to foster relationships between students from different faculties and backgrounds. The MGC organising team is itself an inter-faculty collaboration, involving students from the Medicine, Engineering, and Business faculties.

Working on a range of different topics, from helping to make dialysis safer to tackling the growing epidemics of diabetes and obesity, 25 groups have been short-listed and given seed grants of $500. Groups will be showcasing their work on August 18, 2017 at the NUHS Tower Block Auditorium.

For more information on MGC, visit their website and Facebook page.