National Medical Excellence Awards 2014

28 August 2014

National Medical Excellence Awards 2014

Celebrating the best medical talents

1.            Seven awards were given to outstanding recipients in six award categories at the National Medical Excellence Awards (NMEA) 2014, held at The Regent Singapore on 28 August 2014. The NMEA is the only award given out by the Ministry of Health (MOH) that recognises contributions from health professionals for innovations in healthcare, patient safety, clinical quality, biomedical research as well as training and education of clinicians.

NMEA 2014 Award Recipients

National Outstanding Clinician Award - Professor Wong Peng Cheang

2.         Professor Wong Peng Cheang from the National University Health System (NUHS)  is a highly regarded pioneer in the fields of infertility and assisted reproduction in Singapore. Prof Wong had been honoured with two prestigious lectureships for his pioneering work in research with the rhesus monkey model to show that Gamete Intra-Fallopian Transfer (GIFT) could be an alternative method to assisted reproduction other than In-Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) and Embryo Transfer (ET). As a member of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Task Force on the Diagnosis and Treatment of Infertility, Prof Wong was also involved in several studies, which were at the forefront of infertility research. 

National Outstanding Clinician Scientist Award - Associate Professor Allen Yeoh Eng Juh

3.         Associate Professor Allen Yeoh Eng Juh from NUHS is a prolific clinician-scientist, innovator and entrepreneur, whose work enjoys international recognition. The author of more than 50 papers in leading international medical and scientific journals is widely cited for his work in paediatric leukaemia, and has received many international awards for his research. He is devoted to developing cost-effective treatments to improve treatment outcomes for children with acute leukaemia in Singapore and Asia. A/Prof Yeoh is among the first in the world to show that gene expression profiling of leukaemia cells can accurately diagnose and subtype all the clinically important groups of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) with great accuracy enabling better treatment.

National Outstanding Clinician Mentor Award - Professor Chay Oh Moh and Professor Quak Seng Hock

4.         There are two recipients this year. The first is Professor Chay Oh Moh from KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH). For more than 20 years, Prof Chay has been an outstanding mentor and educator par excellence, making significant contributions to the professional initiation and development of innumerable medical students and residents in the areas of paediatrics and paediatric respiratory medicine, with her teaching, training and mentorship. As the first Academic Chair of the SingHealth-Duke NUS Paediatric Academic Clinical Programme, she established a robust framework that has effectively cultivated strong mentor-mentee relations across all levels of doctors at KKH as well as beyond in SingHealth.

5.         The second recipient is Professor Quak Seng Hock from NUHS. A pioneer in paediatric gastroenterology and hepatology in Singapore, Prof Quak is the principal driver of the Paediatric Liver Transplant Programme. He provided guidance in the training and mentoring of medical students and junior doctors. Prof Quak has trained several overseas fellows in his subspecialty and built up a strong team of specialists, providing one of the best paediatric gastrointestinal and hepatology services in the region, complete with the ability to perform liver transplantation. He is also actively involved in curriculum reformation, playing an integral role in the career development of paediatric trainees. The internal examiner for postgraduate degree in Paediatric Medicine and Family Medicine for the past 20 years, Prof Quak contributes to ensuring the high quality of clinicians.

National Outstanding Clinician Educator Award - Associate Professor Chow Wan Cheng

6.         Associate Professor Chow Wan Cheng from Singapore General Hospital (SGH) is a respected clinician, who has gained regional recognition and won multiple awards for her research in chronic viral hepatitis. She actively contributes to the field of hepatology through sharing her insights in medical textbooks, local and international medical journals as well as at key international scientific meetings. Passionate about education and training, A/Prof Chow has not only contributed significantly towards undergraduate and post-graduate medical education, she is also heavily involved in continuous medical educational programmes for clinicians in primary healthcare, as well as in public education, especially in the field of viral hepatitis.

National Outstanding Clinical Quality Activist Award - Associate Professor Ong Biauw Chi

7.         Associate Professor Ong Biauw Chi from SGH was instrumental in leading a network of committed patient safety officers from across the healthcare sector to achieve successful implementation of the WHO "High 5s" Correct Site Surgery protocol, an achievement which put Singapore on the world map for surgical safety. This was a multi-year project that applied a standardised surgical protocol involving mandatory time-out checks in all major operating theaters in public hospitals to ensure the correct surgical procedure is carried out on the correct patient. Despite being heavily involved in hospital and national safety, quality and governance work, A/Prof Ong is equally passionate about teaching, mentoring and inculcating the right values of patient care and safety to the next generation of healthcare specialists.

National Clinical Excellence Team Award

8.       The recipient is the NUHS’ National University Hospital (NUH) team headed by Associate Professor Malcolm Mahadevan. The other team members are: Dr Kuan Win Sen, Professor Lim Tow Keang and Dr Lim Hui Fang. Severe community-acquired pneumonia (SCAP) is a common and potentially fatal condition. Pneumonia was the fourth leading cause for hospitalisation in Singapore in 2011. To reduce the mortality rates for SCAP patients, the team embarked on a quality improvement project in 2008 to develop a multidisciplinary programme that improved pre-ICU resuscitation and reduced hospital mortality for SCAP patients from 23.8% to 5.7%. The team developed and implemented a multifaceted workflow that standardised and optimised the management of SCAP patients at the emergency department. Their efforts reduced ICU admission rates and length of stay in the hospital, which translated to significant savings in hospital bills for the patients.

9.       The full citations of the winners can be found in Annex A and the fact sheet on NMEA can be found in Annex B.