The Singapore delegation led by Minister for Health Mr Ong Ye Kung on their visit to Duke-NUS’ parent university, Duke // Credit: Chris Hildreth, Rooster Media
Minister for Health Mr Ong Ye Kung led a delegation from the Ministry of Health, National University of Singapore (NUS) and Duke-NUS Medical School on a visit to Duke University on 18 September for a full day of meetings with leadership, faculty and students as well as a visit of the Duke Outpatient Clinic.
The visit was also a reaffirmation of the nearly two-decade-long Duke-NUS partnership.
“We have a strong partnership with [Duke] University, through the Duke-NUS project, which has graduated over ten batches of doctors. What is special about Duke-NUS is that many of the doctors are also concurrently doing research,” Minister Ong wrote in a Facebook post, adding that during his visit, “we discussed many issues of common interest - including our partnership, precision medicine and cost-effective healthcare.”
These focused talks with leading Duke faculty also included discussions on data science; population health, health services research and knowledge translation; and accountable care.
Duke, NUS, and the Singapore government collaborated to open the research-intensive graduate-entry medical school in Singapore in 2005, with a curriculum designed to develop an exceptional pool of leaders and creative thinkers who would push the boundaries of medicine.
Duke University President Professor Vincent Price said: “We are very proud of this partnership and the many ways Duke-NUS Medical School has advanced medical education and research in Asia and beyond.”
Since its inception, Duke-NUS has grown and expanded into a comprehensive academic medical institution conducting advanced biomedical research, educating health care leaders, and advancing patient care through an academic medicine collaboration with SingHealth, Singapore’s largest public healthcare cluster that includes a network of hospitals and specialist clinics.
“Over the last 18 years, we have witnessed the maturation of a true academic medical centre in Singapore through engagement with Duke and Duke faculty to the extent that partnership opportunities are now available in such areas as pandemic preparedness, global health, neuroscience, ageing and others, and they span from basic to translational to clinical research and education,” said Professor Edward Buckley, Vice-Dean for Education in the School of Medicine and Vice-Chancellor for Duke-NUS Affairs.