I am an academic clinician with strong interest in patient safety & quality care; and educating our next generation to be excellent health care providers. I obtained my medical degrees MBBS & MMed (O&G) from National University of Singapore (NUS) and FRCOG in UK. My specialty is Maternal Fetal Medicine in which I am an accreditated clinical trainer in amniocentesis, fetal ultrasound and fetal procedures. I am Cochrane Collaboration reviewer trained at Cochrane Pregnancy & Childbirth Group University of Liverpool since 1994, the first Cochrane Collaboration reviewer in Singapore.
I am a Senior Consultant, Perinatal Audit & Epidemiology, KK Women's & Children's Hospital (KKH) with interest in prevention and management of obstetric and metabolic diseases. I have led many evidence based changes of practice in perinatal & clinical care including pre-eclampsia management protocol, routine Group B Streptococcus Screening; GDM screening; & change of GDM criteria in Singapore. I am Co-Lead for Gestational/Paediatric Diabetes (SingHealth Duke-NUS Diabetes Centre), leading clinical, educational & research co-ordination and management of diabetes in pregnancy in KKH, Singapore General Hospital (SGH) & SingHealth regional cluster.
I am a teaching faculty with Adjunct Professor appointments in 3 medical schools (YLL-NUS, Duke-NUS & NTU LKC) and also a teaching faculty for Singapore Management University (SMU) graduate diploma program in Healthcare Management on Strategy and Academic Medicine (AM). I was former Chair of Division of O&G, KKH (2008-2013) and I promoted subspecialisation with formation of 5 departments under O&G Division (General O&G with Minimally Invasive Surgery - MIS Unit, Urogynaecology, Gynae-Oncology, Maternal Fetal Medicine & Reproductive Medicine). I led in the academic transformation of Division of O&G, KKH and Dept of O&G, SGH to become the SingHealth Duke-NUS OBGYN academic department (as the pioneer Academic Clinical Programme - ACP in the first wave of ACPs, of which I was the inaugural Academic Chair OBGYN in 2011). I helped both OBGYN Residency (as Chair OBGYN) and also Transitional Year Residency (as a concurrent TY Associate Program Director) to achieve both their Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education - International (ACGME-I) first accreditation and a second cycle for TY Residency. Under my watch, we successfully achieved site accreditation by MOH SAB Research Committee, for O&G Division/ACP as a research unit to train Clinician Scientist Residents.
I am the former Senior Associate Dean & Group Director, Academic Medicine of SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre (AMC), in which I led the SingHealth Duke-NUS Joint Office of Academic Medicine (JOAM) since 2013, managing SingHealth Duke-NUS AM funding framework and facilitating the setup, funding & management of Academic Clinical Programmes (academic departments) in our AMC. I led in the creation and devlopment of the Academic Medicine – Enhancing Training, Healthcare, Outcomes and Standards (AM-ETHOS) education and training framework. The AM-ETHOS builds capacity and capabilities for the SingHealth Duke-NUS AMC through the academic development and mentorship development of ACP faculty, medical students and AM administrators with international faculty (including from Duke USA) and these have made significant impact on transformation of our AMC to be a leading global academic clinical cluster.
I lead clinical quality improvement and patient safety in KKH; SingHealth-Duke NUS AMC; and Singapore. As Chair of Process Improvement Committee in KKH 2004-2011, I inculcated value-based care, reducing costs while ensuring excellent care. I am Director of Clinical Quality since 2004 and Chairman of the Patient Safety Council in KKH since 2010, playing a pivotal role in the initiation and implementation of Clinical Quality and Patient Safety education programs. I helped to create and develop a culture of constant learning and improvement at KKH as well as taught O&G & hospital enterprise risk and adverse event management courses in various cities of Asia. I chaired KKH Joint Commission International (JCI) Core Committee through leading in education and culture change for excellent patient care with KKH achieving 4 successful consecutive cycles of JCI hospital care accreditation, the last being an JCI-Academic Hospital accreditation. I am a Singapore Healthcare Improvement Network (SHINe) Council member, actively involved in several large-scale initiatives for quality improvement, in collaboration with Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), USA.
I led in the creation of the Institute for Patient Safety & Quality (IPSQ) in 2017, of which currently I am the inaugural Group Director/Senior Associate Dean of IPSQ (2nd concurrent appointment of Group Directorship/Senior Associate Deanship in addition to my AM appointment), to embed strong patient safety and quality excellence culture in our AMC. In IPSQ, I led in the formation of the Academic Medicine – Enhancing Performance, Improving Care (AM-EPIC) patient safety and competency framework of education and training with courses from foundation & activist levels to professional and champion levels. I led in establishing IPSQ AM-EPIC curriculum and launched patient safety leadership, teamwork, human factor, design thinking and quality improvement workshops for faculty and residents, some with faculty from Duke USA. I have been appointed the inaugural Chair of National Quality Council (NQC) from 1st June 2017, which serves as the national advisory panel to MOH on healthcare quality priorities and strategies.
I am active in national (had served as Presidents for both O&G Society and Perinatal Society), international societies and in the editorial committees of a number of societies. I am an active researcher and held several national grants with international collaborators; including as Co-PI for Growing Up in Singapore Towards healthy Outcomes (GUSTO) & Singapore Preconception Study of Long-Term Maternal and Child Outcomes (S-PRESTO) TCR Flagship Programs and PI of National Research Council (NRC) Program Project Grant - Neonatal & Obstetrics Risk Assessment (NORA birth cohort study). I am an active collaborator of international trials including as site PI for PROGNOSIS ASIA; and MAGPIE pre-eclampsia trials.
I am involved in A*STAR innovative collaborative platform of extracellular vesicles (EVs) for high risk pregnancy & women’s cancer, which involves biomarker discovery & validation of candidate biomarkers. I have several scientific patent applications and an issued patent by United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). I helped found the Singapore translation research society for EVs - Society for the Clinical Translation and Research of Extracellular Vesicles Singapore (SOCRATES) which has active interactions with the International Society of Extracellular Vesicles (ISEV).
I am Lead PI for Research Innovation Enterprise (RIE2020) NMRC Collaborative Center Grant - Integrated Platform for Research in Advancing Metabolic Health Outcomes of Women and Children (IPRAMHO) which builds core research capability & capacity and enhance collaborative & transdisciplinary research productivity in metabolic health for women and children in Singapore, with active collaborative engagements of national & international key opinion leaders & collaborators; and employment & training of clinician scientists, including clinician epidemiologists.
I received several awards for my academic & clinical contributions. These included: the Inaugural National Medical Excellence Team Award 2008; the World Health Organisation WHO-UAE Health Foundation Prize 2009 as Integrated Perinatal Care Project Team Leader; the Inaugural National Outstanding Clinical Quality Activist Award 2010; SingHealth Duke-NUS Scientific Congress Best Oral Paper for Translational Research 2012; the Malaysian International Congress of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Dato’ Dr M. Kanagalingam Award – Best Oral Presentation First Prize 2013; and the 23rd Benjamin Henry Sheares Memorial Lectureship Gold Medal Award 2013.