Associate Professor Kevin Yap joins the school to advance AI, extended reality (XR), serious games and digital health innovation in nursing education and practice.

Trained as a pharmacist and working at the intersection of clinical practice, digital health, and education innovation, A/Prof Yap brings to the department a strong track record in healthcare innovation, interdisciplinary research, and technology-enabled education.

In his new role, he will advance nursing education and healthcare innovation, focusing on strengthening digital health and nursing informatics capabilities. He will enhance the skills of nurse practitioners through technology-enabled education, develop digital health strategies and innovative approaches to support nursing practice, as well as supervise undergraduate and postgraduate research projects to nurture future-ready nurse leaders.

“A/Prof Yap’s appointment reflects our commitment to shaping the future of nursing through innovation and interdisciplinary collaboration,” says Professor Liaw Sok Ying, Head of NUS Nursing. “His expertise in digital health and emerging technologies will help prepare our students for a rapidly evolving healthcare landscape.”

Prior to joining NUS Nursing, A/Prof Yap was a digital health innovator and the Serious Games Lead at Singapore General Hospital’s Pharmacy Division, where he led immersive technology education and innovation in serious games, XR, metaverse, generative AI, and digital health humanities. He also held concurrent roles at the SingHealth College of Clinical Pharmacy as Vice-Chair (Innovation and Research), and at Duke-NUS Medical School as Clinical Associate Professor in the Surgery Academic Clinical Programme. He retains his role as Adjunct Associate Professor (Digital Health) at La Trobe University, Australia.

As an interdisciplinary digital health strategist and cyberpharmacist, his research spans pharmacoinformatics and health informatics, telehealth and mHealth, artificial intelligence, healthcare data analytics, and clinical prediction models. His work also explores extended reality, serious games, 3D printing, and the metaverse in healthcare and educational contexts, with a focus on developing human-centred innovations that translate into real-world impact. Additionally, his digital education initiatives aim to equip future healthcare professionals with essential 21^st century skills, such as critical thinking and adaptability.

A/Prof Yap has authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications, five book chapters and one book, and delivered more than 100 international presentations. He pioneered the concepts of cyberpharmacy and pharmacocybernetics, and has developed various digital health applications, tools and evaluation frameworks for XR, serious games, AI and mHealth. He has received multiple awards, including the QS Reimagine Education International Awards (USA), Health 2.0 Outstanding Leadership Award (Dubai), Pharmaceutical Society of Singapore-Pfizer Innovation and Scientific Research Award, and SingHealth Pharmacy’s Best Educator Award. He also serves on seven journal editorial boards and reviews for over 40 international journals, grants and conferences.