The idea for a graduate medical school first emerged in 2001 from the recommendations of a medical education review panel, chaired by Lord Ronald Oxburgh and commissioned by the Ministry of Education, Singapore.
The panel recommended that Singapore establish a graduate-entry medical school on the Singapore General Hospital campus to train clinicians in research to meet the needs of the healthcare and biomedical industry, an industry that had just embarked on a transformation.
Through the biomedical sciences initiative, launched in 2000, the Singapore government sought to turn the nation into a biomedical hub for Asia, attracting research and health sector manufacturing capabilities as well as world-class scientific talent.
Setting up a research-intensive new medical school would play a key role in nurturing a new kind of clinician who not only excelled in their clinical care but could also improve care through research.