As a clinician-scientist, specializing in health services research to inform the delivery of end-of-life care, my goal is to deliver high-quality research to improve how people with serious illnesses and their caregivers can be supported during their journey. I am an Assistant Professor in the Program in Health Services and Systems Research, and the Deputy Director (Research) at the Lien Centre for Palliative Care at Duke-NUS Medical School, National University of Singapore.
I started my research career in India while pursuing my residency (2002-2005) and senior residency (2005-2006) in Community Medicine at the Maulana Azad Medical College, University of Delhi, India. I then pursued the Master of Public Health (MPH) program (2006-2008) at the Department of Maternal and Child Health, UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA. I joined the Program in Health Services and Systems Research at Duke-NUS Medical School in 2009 as a Research Fellow and was promoted to Senior Research Fellow in 2011, Research track Assistant Professor in 2012, and the tenure-track Assistant Professor position in 2015. During this time, I made a transition in my research from maternal and child health to the health of older adults and then subsequently to palliative/end-of-life care.
During the last 7 years, my research has focused on three main themes: 1) Patient preferences for end-of-life care, including advance care planning; 2) Health care experiences and outcomes among seriously ill patients at the end of life; and 3) Caregiving for seriously ill patients.
I have published 111 papers, of which 59 are as first or senior author, in leading journals in the field including oncology/medicine (JNCCN - Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (IF: 12.69), Cancer (IF: 6.92), Journal of General Internal Medicine (IF: 6.47), Psycho-Oncology (IF:3.95)); palliative care (Palliative Medicine (IF:5.71), Journal of Pain and Symptom Management (IF: 5.57)), geriatrics (Age and Ageing (IF: 12.78), Journal of the American Medical Directors Association (IF: 7.80), Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (IF: 7.53)) and cardiology (Journal of Cardiac Failure (IF: 6.59))
I have received a total of 12 grants as a Principal Investigator (total funding received: S$5,410,563), 7 of which are ongoing. These grants have been awarded by the National Medical Research Council, Temasek Foundation, Ministry of Health - Health Services Research Grant, Agency for Integrated Care, National Kidney Foundation and Lien Centre for Palliative Care incubator awards. I am or have been a co-investigator on 14 grants (10 completed; 4 ongoing).
In 2022, I was awarded the Clinician Scientist Award by Singapore’s National Medical Research Council, and recognized as an outstanding author by the ‘Annals of Palliative Medicine’. My oral and poster conference presentations have also received numerous awards. The students that I have supervised for their theses have received awards for their research (e.g. Best Student Award at SingHealth Duke-NUS Scientific Congress 2021, and Vice-Dean Award at the 2022 Duke School of Medicine Student Research Symposium).
I have been invited to present my research at several leading national and international forums and universities. My research on advance care planning is influencing its implementation in Singapore. The recommendations from my evaluation of the National Advance Care Planning program are being used to inform its next phase.
As a member of the Academic Medicine grant review committee since 2018, I have been closely involved in research funding decisions. In my capacity as an editorial board member for BMC Palliative Care since 2021, I provide my scientific expertise to the journal, evaluate peer review reports and make editorial decisions. I am/have been a member of several workgroups, including the Advance care planning Research and Development Workgroup by the Agency for Integrated Care (2018- ).
I oversee the Integrated Biology and Medicine Ph.D. program within the Program in Health Services and Systems Research (HSSR). I am the overall coordinator of the HSSR Ph.D. core course (GMS6950) and teach some of its modules. I have mentored 21 students (1 Ph.D. student for thesis, 7 Duke-NUS MD students for thesis, 1 Duke MD student for thesis, 9 undergraduate medical or economics students for thesis/internship, and 3 Ph.D. students for rotation) to date.