Issue 28 - NUS Medicine

A PUBLICATION OF THE
NUS YONG LOO LIN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

Issue 28 / November 2018

DEAN'S MESSAGE

Inspiring Health for All

Let me start by congratulating Team Medicine for winning the 2018 Inter-Faculty Games and bringing home the Tan Eng Chye Challenge Trophy! Well-done all sportsmen and women!

We are all part of cycles in life. I begin with a tribute to our teachers here at the School. The 2,950 teachers include academic clinicians, scientists as well as clinicians from public and private healthcare institutions. Our teachers unstintingly give of their time to teach and mentor tomorrow’s doctors, nurses and scientists. Our students catch the inspiration from their teachers, and seniors, and will in turn pass on the values, wisdom and experience to those who come after…

Dossier

Medical Conference Offers Perspectives, Insights

The Asian Medical Schools Conference 2018 hosted by Hanoi University in Vietnam... was attended by ASEAN delegates from countries such as Thailand, Indonesia, Myanmar, and Vietnam. During the conference, delegates presented their research projects and discussed pertinent issues regard their countries’ healthcare systems.

Neighbourhood Health Service 2018 – Bringing together the nation’s key players in healthcare delivery

Singapore’s pioneering student-led health screening programme for residents of rental HDB apartments has expanded significantly this year, the 12th since the programme began in 2007.

Teaching the Young to Care for the Old

Tri-generational Homecare @ North West (Trigen for short) is a NUS Medicine community project that brings together healthcare students and secondary students to create an environment beneficial to health recovery for elderly people. Chester Tan (Phase II) and Xiong Zhong Hui (Phase III) tell us more.

Science of Life

Cross-Causeway Collaboration Raises Cure Rate for Childhood Leukemia

On the face of it, childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) appears to have been licked, with cure rates of between 80 and 90 per cent. However, the challenge remains to improve outcomes for the small proportion of patients who do not respond well to standard treatment for ALL and have very poor outcomes.

Key to Artery Health Lies in LYVE-1 Macrophage

Our arteries are the major highways by which blood, oxygen, nutrients and cells are carried throughout the body to keep our tissues functioning normally. Unfortunately, much like actual highways, arteries can get worn down or damaged, which can have serious consequences.

Healing the Bone

Dr Goh Wei Leong, Chairman and Co-Founder of Healthserve, was the Guest of Honour at this year’s White Coat Ceremony (WCC) for first year students on 16 August 2018. This is what he told them...

Ethically Speaking

What Matters for a Good Life Matters for Good Care

In a recent report on Good care at home for older people in Singapore, colleagues and collaborators of the Centre for Biomedical Ethics encourage us to consider how, in an ageing society, we should “acknowledge, advance and balance the interests of older adults and of caregivers”.

A Doctor Never Stops learning

MediCine is reproducing a series of articles from Ministry of Health's publication “Caring for our People: 50 years of healthcare in Singapore”. In the first article of this series, Professor Chew Chin Hin, Emeritus Consultant, Tan Tock Seng Hospital and Honorary Postgraduate Advisor & Adj Professor of Medicine, NUS Medicine Division of Graduate Medical Studies, shares his passion in medical education.

Families – Love ‘Em or Hate ‘Em, We Can’t Live Without ‘Em

Most of us are born and live in the context of a family, yet we never stop to think about what a family is. A common definition refers to a social unit consisting of parents and children, but that is only one form of family. Over time, our understanding of the family unit has evolved and grown in diversity. What has this got to do with Palliative care? Quite a lot as it happens.

Running Highs and Lows: Going Beyond The Treatment of Symptoms

There’s nothing like a good run to awaken the senses, get the heart pumping, the blood surging and the adrenaline flowing. The ground flowing beneath the feet, the wind slipping past, the watch counting off the number of kilometres covered. But wait – what’s that twinge in the heel? And ouch, that sudden stab of pain in the knee…

All in the Family

Community Care Education at NUS Medicine

Primary care is the foundation of the healthcare system in Singapore, by providing the first point of patient contact and care in the community. These primary care clinics provide continuing, comprehensive, coordinated, accessible and affordable care for patients of different age groups... and keep the population healthy through health promotion and preventive measures such as targeted health screening and vaccinations.

He Pulled a Metal Shard from a Farmer’s Heart

NUS Medicine alumnus Dr Ashok Venkataraman (Class of 2007) was called to extract a 2.5cm piece of barbed wire that had pierced the heart of a farmer in Eugene, Oregon in the United States. That emergency procedure saved the life of the 62-year-old man, who had suffered the accident when the metal shard was caught by his mechanical flail mower and shot into his rib cage. MediCine caught up with Dr Venkataraman, who is an Attending Cardiothoracic Surgeon at the Oregon Heart & Vascular Institute.

People of NUS Medicine

Succumbing to Biotechnology’s Adrenaline Rush

Dr Azhar Ali, Senior Research Scientist from Cancer Science Institute, Singapore, had never imagined that he would be a scientist when he was growing up. He shares his story on how his life experiences had led him to pursue a career in cancer science.

November 2018 – January 2019

Date Event & Venue Nov 1 Dialogue 2018 Level 1, Auditorium, NUHS Tower Block Nov 27-28 Raffles Dialogue Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel Jan 9-13 16th Asia Pacific Medical Education Conference (APMEC) University Cultural Centre, NUS Jan 14 NUS-Cambridge Joint Symposium University of Cambridge, UK Jan 17-18 East Asian Forum of Nursing Scholars (EAFONS) Furama RiverFront Hotel […]

SCHEDULER

NOVEMBER - JANUARY

Date	Event & Venue
Nov 1	Dialogue 2018 Level 1, Auditorium, NUHS Tower Block
Nov 27-28	Raffles Dialogue Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel
Jan 9-13	16th Asia Pacific Medical Education Conference (APMEC) University Cultural Centre (UCC), NUS
Jan 14	NUS-Cambridge Joint Symposium University of Cambridge, UK
Jan 17-18	East Asian Forum of Nursing Scholars (EAFONS) Furama Riverfront Hotel
Jan 25-27	4th NUHS-Harvard BIDMC Conference 2019: Update in Internal Medicine Level 1, Auditorium, NUHS Tower Block