Issue 35 - NUS Medicine

NUS YONG LOO LIN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

Issue 35 / August 2020

DEAN'S MESSAGE

Dear Reader,

On December 21 last year, a cruise ship set sail from Hamburg, Germany, on what was supposed to be a 140-day journey. On board were uninvited and unseen stowaways. One hundred and seventy days later, the MV Artania finally docked at the German port of Bremerhaven after an epic, six-month odyssey. Of the more than 1,000 passengers, only eight were left on board along with a skeleton crew. More than 800 passengers had disembarked along the way to catch flights home, while another 200 or so were evacuated to hospitals. En route home, the ship made numerous diversions to drop off crew members, before returning to a world vastly changed from the one it left in December.

COVID-19 Special

How Close Are We To A Vaccine Or Treatment For COVID-19?

Many different vaccines and drugs are being developed and tested at a record-busting pace, thanks to an unprecedented level of worldwide collaboration. However, it will likely take months to a year before we have a vaccine or drug.

COVID-19: Updates From Singapore Webinar Series

The ongoing health, economic and social impact brought about by the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic, together with potentially long-lasting behavioural, lifestyle and psychological changes in people all around the world, tell us that the novel coronavirus has a further reach than the disease it brings. The COVID-19: Updates from Singapore webinar series has seen a range of perspectives from leading experts in disciplines such as medicine, public health, economics, policy making and science that have shed light on the risks, unknowns and opportunities in this unprecedented time.

Pathogen Central

Have you ever wondered where viruses are studied? What goes into studying virus samples? Who are the people who support the day-to-day research operations? The answers lie inside the largest research-focused biocontainment facility in Singapore, currently housed on campus at Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, and known as the Biosafety Level-3 Core Facility.

Before Singapore Exits Circuit Breaker, Let’s Reflect On Our Biases Against Migrant Workers

“It’s okay to break circuit breaker rules, this is a migrant worker problem anyway.” I heard this spoken by a passerby one afternoon on my way home, after volunteering as a frontline worker at a migrant dormitory, my N95 mask and goggle masks still etched on my face. Since then, the segregation between “them” and “us” seems to have grown.

Insights

Isolation, Loneliness & Re-connecting In The Time of COVID-19

The COVID-19 situation has hit some harder than others, but everyone has been affected by the rapidly changing circumstances and the need to self-isolate. At the start of the year, phrases like #socialdistancing, #flattenthecurve and #circuitbreaker had not entered our lexicon, we could not imagine what it would be like to stay at home all the time, not to be able to see friends and family, and to wear a mask when outside.

In Vivo

Levelling Up! Enhancing Teaching With Gamification And Technology

To introduce and educate medical students on the importance of healthcare economics, the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine has created HEALING, or Health Economics Awareness LearnING, a technology-enhanced simulation game. Doubling up as a learning tool, learners are able to download and access this app anytime and anywhere to learn about the optimising costs in clinical care.

Introducing The VIP: An AI Response To Clinical Teaching In The Time Of COVID-19

With lesser contact hours in the classrooms and clinics, the Virtual Integrated Patient (VIP) is a virtual hospital which exposes medical students and practitioners to different clinical cases, allowing them to hone their clinical acumen and skills in a safe space.

The ENABL Collaboration: Partnering With Pharma To Detect And Stop Major Cause of Liver Cancer

Non alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), the presence of fat in the liver that is unrelated to excessive alcohol consumption, is the most common chronic liver disease, affecting 30% to 40% of adults in the U.S. The prevalence of NAFLD is even higher in parts of Southeast Asia, reaching 40% in Singapore and Malaysia and over 50% in Indonesia.

Precision Medicine

What Do Diabetes And Alcohol Metabolism Have In Common?

In the largest non-European diabetes genetics study to date that involved 433,540 East Asian individuals from China, Hong Kong, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and USA, an international team of 113 investigators co-led by 5 senior authors, including Dr Xueling Sim from NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health (NUS SSHSPH) and Dr Karen Mohlke from University of North Carolina, identified 61 new genetic variants associated with Type 2 Diabetes (T2D).

Keeper of The Flame

A familiar face in the NUHS Residency programme since 2009, Associate Professor Shirley Ooi handed the reins to her successor at the start of July 2020. She tells why helming the NUHS Residency programme for more than a decade has been a deeply satisfying and meaningful chapter in her professional career.

Ethically Speaking

The Duty To Inform And The Doctor’s Dilemma

Doctors provide patients with information and advice in order to provide the best care for the patient (the principle of beneficence) and to enable the patient to make an informed decision (the principle of autonomy)1. These two objectives should exist in harmony but more often than not, they end up at odds with each other.

‘What Is Inconvenient For You Is Life-Saving For Me’: How Health Inequities Are Playing Out During The COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact globally. Most affected, however, are those individuals and groups routinely disadvantaged by the social injustice created by the misdistribution of power, money, and resources. Simple measures that prevent the spread of COVID-19, such as frequent hand washing and social distancing, are unavailable to millions of people in the wealthiest of nations and in the poorest of nations.

Alumni Voices

From Classroom To Frontline

The disruptions caused by COVID-19 have been widespread. Graduates from the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine Class of 2020 were deployed earlier than expected to work in hospitals islandwide to meet the nation’s call for healthcare professionals, and most faced a heavy workload from the get-go. Hear from some of our newest alumni as they share their thoughts on graduating early and answering the call to serve during a pandemic.

First SAF Female Medical Officer To Don Khaki Beret

Captain (Dr) Ng Chen Hui returned to the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) last year to resume her career as a medical officer, after completing her medical studies at the National University of Singapore. Two weeks into her role, Captain (Dr) Ng did the unthinkable by volunteering to undergo the gruelling Guards Conversion Course (GCC).