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Duke-NUS’ newly graduated doctors well prepared to transform healthcare, with emphasis on AI, community and mental wellbeing

• Duke-NUS Medical School today celebrated the graduation of 89 medical and doctoral students from its Class of 2023, who experienced a global pandemic six months into their studies
• First students graduate with PhDs in Clinical and Translational Sciences, ready to lead clinical and translational research to better impact patient outcomes
• Ms Indranee Rajah, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, graced the graduation as Guest-of-Honour, alongside SingHealth Group CEO Professor Ivy Ng, who was the keynote speaker

 

SINGAPORE, 3 June 2023 – Today, Duke-NUS Medical School celebrated the graduation of 89 medical and doctoral students from the Class of 2023, who are well prepared to transform healthcare with their focus on new technology, community health and mental wellbeing. They also form Duke-NUS’ largest cohort to graduate to date.

Held at the Ngee Ann Kongsi Auditorium in Academia, Guest-of-Honour Ms Indranee Rajah, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, joined the graduates, their families and special invited guests for the momentous occasion.

“Along with being our largest class so far, the Class of 2023 entered medical school just six months before the COVID pandemic hit, while they were still in the classroom,” said Professor Thomas Coffman, Dean of Duke-NUS. “But they adapted well as we changed our curriculum on the fly, and with resilience and fortitude, have developed into thoughtful and caring young doctors.”

The Class of 2023 comprises 74 Doctor of Medicine Programme (MD) graduates who come from diverse backgrounds such as finance, engineering and economics, allowing them to develop into all-around versatile doctors who will use their resilience and unique insights to enrich the healthcare and biomedical sectors.

“Besides having to grapple with the stresses caused by social isolation, the Class of 2023 also had to cope with changes to their education because of evolving COVID health and safety regulations,” said Professor Ian Curran, Vice-Dean for Education. “This experience has imbued them with a deeply empathetic understanding of how much pandemic restrictions can affect everyone’s lives and mental health, and I hope they will bring this shared perspective to bear in their compassion for their patients.”

As Singapore continues to take steps towards becoming a healthier nation through its new preventive care programme Healthier SG, health literacy will be key to its success—a need that has become even more acute in the age of artificial intelligence and health chatbots that may provide inaccurate information. To help ready some of the most vulnerable groups for this future, the Class of 2023 developed Project Crane during their second year, an initiative to promote general well-being and improve health literacy among marginalised groups.

Dr Marco Lizwan, who was part of Project Crane, said, “My proudest moment was when I, together with my class, put together Project Crane. Despite COVID being at its peak and the many restrictions in terms of conducting community service projects, we were not only able to initiate a project but also establish it as a legacy of the School.”

Upon graduation, students receive MD degrees jointly awarded by Duke University and the National University of Singapore (NUS). Those who excel academically or stand out for their community service and leadership abilities are also recognised by the School, with awards such as the Singapore Medical Association-Lee Foundation Achievement Prize and the College of Physicians Prize in Internal Medicine.

Dr Michelle Ko, who received not only the Academy of Medicine’s Singapore Medal for Outstanding Leadership but also the Singapore Medical Association-Lee Foundation Teamsmanship Award, said, “I’ve been deeply humbled by my past experiences as a medical student and the privilege that many patients have given me to learn from them. It goes without much saying that I am looking forward to the start of my journey as a doctor with much excitement and anticipation!”

Four years ago, Dr Ko and her classmates first donned their white coats and recited the Hippocratic Oath to mark the start of their journeys to become doctors. For some, this would not have been possible if not for the School’s Student Financial Aid initiatives, which provide scholarships and bursaries to aid students in realising their dreams to join the medical profession. Currently, more than 60 per cent of the students at Duke-NUS receive some form of financial assistance from the School.

“I am overwhelmed with heartfelt gratitude for the generous support of the scholarship that I’ve received,” said Dr Loh Xinpeng, who is a Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple scholar and was also awarded the SingHealth Top Student Gold Medal and the Duke-NUS Achievement Prize (Most Outstanding Clinical Science Research Thesis). “It not only empowered me to acquire clinical knowledge, skills and experiences but also paved the way for me to positively impact the lives of patients and their communities in my future practice. As I navigate this transformative journey, I am eager to explore and embrace the multitude of training opportunities that lie ahead.”

As one of the first acts as newly minted junior doctors, the graduates once again recited the Hippocratic Oath during the ceremony. They first pledged this oath on entering medical school during their White Coat Ceremony.

Graduating alongside the medical students, the 9th cohort of 13 Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) and two MD-PhD students also received their degree scrolls.

This year, Dr Natalia Porporato was among the first to graduate from the Clinical and Translational Sciences (CTS) PhD programme. The programme was launched in 2018 to prepare medical and health science professionals to lead multi-disciplinary translational and patient-oriented teams in partnership with science and industry collaborators.

“The CTS PhD programme at Duke-NUS offered me the foundation and confidence I needed to independently conduct clinical research,” said Dr Porporato, who is a practising ophthalmologist. “It has been a formidable journey, not only to see the process and results of my own research but also one of my classmates’. I think one of the most fascinating aspects is that we get to plan and design how a new technology or treatment is going to be used in patients in the future.”

Graduating with not only an MD degree but also a PhD, Dr Gabriel Chew came to Duke-NUS after his time as a research engineer at a brain computer interface lab at the Institute for Infocomm Research. Throughout the course of his MD-PhD studies, Dr Chew pursued his interest in neuroscience and medical technology by working on neural prosthesis and their applications in clinical contexts. Alongside his studies, he even became a father to two daughters.

Clinching the Duke-NUS Achievement Prize (Outstanding Publication Award) with his thesis, Dr Chew said, “With things like ChatGPT, it is increasingly likely that artificial intelligence will revolutionise medicine in time. My PhD work on computational biology under Associate Professor Enrico Petretto helped me to be at the forefront of bioinformatics and machine learning. I believe my MD-PhD training has prepared me to imagine and apply the possibilities that AI can bring to clinical medicine.”

For media enquires, please contact Dionne Seah, Duke-NUS Communications.