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S R E Sayampanathan
Master (2016-2018)
Academy of Medicine, Singapore
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18 October 2016
Dear Fellow Academicians
My first 100 days of service as Master gave me an in-depth appreciation of the dynamic diversity inherent in the Academy. While diversity indeed presents many challenges, it also proffers strength interwoven with advantages and privileges.
The Academy today has more than 3,300 Fellows from 35 medical specialties and 5 sub-specialties plus 7 dental specialties, distributed over 12 Colleges and 4 Chapters. Collectively, we must continue in our endeavour to reach out to other specialists to join the fellowship. It is the enriching diversity coupled with strong representation and responsible leadership that puts the Academy in an unassailable position to set values and professional standards and to offer professional advices, guidelines and opinions, advancing the profession and improving patient care.
One of the very first initiatives of AMS Deanery spearheaded by Dr Lim Shih Hui is to study the draft framework on generic professional capabilities (GPCs) undertaken by the UK General Medical Council, working jointly with the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges1. The generic professional capabilities framework is a matrix of education outcomes, consisting of nine interdependent domains that are universal to all doctors across all medical specialties. It aims to identify, simplify and clarify the important core professional capabilities and yet provide the opportunity to adopt and contextualise the framework across specialties and sub-specialties.
Facilitating the leadership of Academy and its Colleges to evaluate the GPCs framework and also to engage in discourses on health profession education and educational excellence, the AMS Council is pleased to award the 2016 Distinguished Academician to Dr Ian Edward Curran.
Dr Ian Curran is Assistant Director of Education and Professional Standards at the UK General Medical Council where he leads policy development and quality assurance of postgraduate medical education. He is trained as an anaesthesiologist with an interest in chronic pain management at St Bartholomew’s Hospital where he was appointed Professor of Innovation and Excellence in Healthcare Education. He is a visiting Professor at the King’s College London and the Cass Business School. He was Postgraduate Dean of Educational Excellence and Head of Innovation for London and clinical adviser to the UK Department of Health, NHS England and Health Education England.
His visit to Singapore will take place on 4 - 12 November 2016. He will deliver lectures and conduct workshops and round table discussions on issues related to health profession education, generic and specialty-specific professional capabilities, professionalism and professional excellence, to name a few. The programme will also include engagements with Duke-NUS Medical School, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and Singapore Medical Council’s CME Coordinating Committee.
Fellow academicians and members are welcome to participate or attend the programme where applicable. Please visit our website for details and schedules of his visit programme.
1 General Medical Council. “Generic professional capabilities – outcome of public consultation”. 25 February 2016.
The Academy charted another milestone with the launch of the College of Clinician Scientists on 26 August. The College’s vision and mission is to provide collective and professional identity for clinician scientists, advise relevant authorities on biomedical research issues and training of clinician scientists, and be the academic voice of the Academy.
The College of Clinician Scientists also held at its launch, its first formal research training event, Investigator-Initiated Trials (IITs) Workshop, at the National Dental Centre of Singapore.
Dr Pierce Chow, President of the new College, outlined that the workshop aims to provide insights into the vital role investigator-initiated trials play in the healthcare landscape and the key opportunities and challenges they offer; identifying important clinical gaps and formulating research questions that will interest collaborators; understanding the goals, research areas and review processes for IITs within industry and the benefits of partnerships between industry and researchers. It was a commendable beginning for a young fledgling College. A total of 100 participants attended the workshop, including investigators from China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines and Thailand.
The call for Galloway Memorial Lectureship is now open for application. The Lecture provides an opportunity to highlight excellent research work of practitioner of medicine and allied sciences in a clinical research lecture in memory of Sir David James Galloway. The subject offered for this Lecture must be clinical or translational research including Health Services Outcome Research. The lectureship will be delivered on 22 July 2017 at the plenary session of the 51st Singapore-Malaysia Congress of Medicine.
The College of Clinician Scientists will review applications and make recommendation for Lectureship award. Call for application closes on 15 November 2016.
Many educational and professional meetings were held in the past two months. These are several of the meetings which I had attended and I am pleased to give you a preview of the wide-ranging and deeply enriching programmes organised for our fellows and members.
The College of Emergency Physicians held its Dinner Lecture on 12 August 2016 at the Suntec City. The College Lecture was delivered by Dr Eillyne Seow, Senior Consultant, Acute & Emergency Care, Khoo Teck Phuat Hospital, who presented on ‘Elements of a High Performing Emergency Department: a Personal Opinion’.
The inaugural Plastic Aesthetic Surgery Meeting 2016, jointly organised by the Chapter of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons and Singapore Association of Plastic Surgeons, was held on 2 – 3 September 2016 at Academia@SingHealth. It was well attended by 105 participants comprising plastic surgeons and nurses from both the public and private sectors.
Dr Michael Miroshnik and Dr Man Koon Suh were both awarded Visiting Academicians by the Academy. They delivered lectures on ‘Primary Breast Augmentation with Cohesive Gel Implants’ and ‘Secondary Rhinoplasty’ at the meeting respectively.
The College of Physicians, Singapore held its 26th Seah Cheng Siang Memorial Lecture and 13th College of Physicians Lecture on 2 September 2016 at the Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel.
The 26th Seah Cheng Siang Memorial Lecture was delivered by Dr Chng Wee Joo, Director of the National University Cancer Institute, Singapore. Dr Chng spoke on ‘Multiple Myeloma: A Journey from Biology to Potential Cure’.
Dr Tan Lai Yong, Resident Fellow of the College of Alice and Peter Tan, National University of Singapore, delivered the 13th College of Physicians Lecture entitled ‘Rural Lessons for Urban Doctors’.
The College also had a conferment ceremony for two esteemed Fellows who have eminently distinguished themselves in the service of internal medicine.
Dr Chee Yam Cheng (Senior Advisor, National Healthcare Group Board, and President, National Healthcare Group College), and Dr Ong Yong Yau (Senior Advisor, SingHealth and Clinical Professor of Medicine, National University of Singapore) were both conferred Honorary Fellowship of the College.
The 2nd Singapore International Public Health Conference and 11th Singapore Public Health and Occupational Medicine Conference, jointly organised by the College of Public Health and Occupational Physicians and the NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, was held on 29 – 30 September at the Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel.
Held in every four years, the Conference brought together a multi-national, multi-sector and multi-disciplinary panel of public health professionals and practitioners, academics, researchers, policy-makers and international stakeholders from around the world.
The two-day event attracted at total of 615 delegates who discussed issues on successes, barriers and opportunities in tackling existing and emerging public health challenges and exchanged knowledge about effective policies, programmes, best strategies, practices and methodology.
The 2nd Induction Comitia for 2016 will be held on 22 October, starting from 2:00 pm at the Health Promotion Board Auditorium. The Guest-of-Honour is Dr Chia Shi-Lu, Chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Health, as well as Member of Parliament for Tanjong Pagar GRC. Dr Chia will be conferred the Fellowship of the Academy at the Comitia.
The Academy Council has hosted annual dialogue sessions with senior management of the Ministry of Health over the years. This year, we look forward to meet Mr Chan Heng Kee, Permanent Secretary (Health), who took office early this year, engaging him on our strategic plans and directions and the Ministry’s plan for the healthcare scene in Singapore. Our objective is to ensure our profession stays actively engaged in supporting the national healthcare agenda.
The Academy and its Colleges have many more events and programmes for our fellows and members which are available on the websites of the Academy and its Colleges.
On behalf of the AMS Council, I would like to wish our Hindu Fellows and Friends, a Happy Deepavali!
Best Wishes
Dr S R E Sayampanathan
Master
Email: master@ams.edu.sg
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