Private healthcare group Parkway Pantai has given $2 million to establish a scholarship fund.
From left: Dr Tan See Leng, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer of IHH Healthcare and Group Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director of Parkway Pantai, Dato Mohammed Azlan bin Hashim, Chairman, IHH Healthcare, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Prof Ivy Ng, Group CEO, SingHealth, Prof Thomas Coffman, Dean, Duke-NUS Medical School
Private healthcare group Parkway Pantai has given $2 million to establish a scholarship fund to support Duke-NUS medical students and help cultivate budding medical researchers from Singapore’s three medical schools.
Students at Duke-NUS Medical School are graduates from different academic backgrounds, bringing with them a diverse range of skills and perspectives that are much needed in Medicine. At the same time, pursuing one’s calling to be a doctor at a life juncture where there may be other personal and family commitments can prove to be a challenge financially.
To enable aspiring doctors to focus on their training, Parkway Pantai has generously contributed $2 million to establish the Mount Elizabeth-Gleneagles Graduate Scholarship Fund. The gift will support scholarship awards for Duke-NUS medical students in need of financial assistance and talent development awards for students from all three local medical schools who have excelled at their individual or group academic projects, to present their findings at international seminars and conferences.
Parkway Pantai’s senior management presented the cheque to SingHealth and Duke-NUS leaders at the opening of the SingHealth Duke-NUS Scientific Congress 2018 on 22 September. The cheque presentation was witnessed by the event’s Guest of Honour, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Foreign Affairs. Dr Balakrishnan described medical training as an “essential mission” of the public sector as it ensures a pipeline of skilled healthcare professionals for Singapore, which ultimately benefits both the public and private sectors. Thanking Parkway Pantai for the gift, Dr Balakrishnan said the donation “was a way for the company to pay it forward”, and hoped that this partnership between the public and private healthcare sector would continue.
Acknowledging the importance of medical education, Dr Tan See Leng said, “We believe people are our greatest asset. Through our two medical scholarships established with NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and now Duke-NUS Medical School, Parkway Pantai is proud to support the development of future-ready medical talent in Singapore. Our endowed gift will help outstanding medical students focus on their academic goals and realise their full potential and dreams.”
Each year, the Fund will support about 10 scholarship awards of around $10,000 each and eight SingHealth Medical Student Talent Development Awards of about $3,000 each.
“We are grateful to Parkway Pantai for their generous support of medical education and the future of healthcare in Singapore. The Mount Elizabeth-Gleneagles Graduate Scholarship will enable Duke-NUS students to realise their aspirations of becoming great clinicians without undue financial burden,” remarked Professor Coffman.
SingHealth Duke-NUS Scientific Congress 2018 brought together thought leaders and healthcare professionals to share insights in care improvement, research and education to improve patients' outcomes, both in Singapore and beyond its borders.
During the opening ceremony, Dr Balakrishnan also launched the SingHealth Duke-NUS Global Health Institute (SDGHI). The SDGI will collaborate with countries in the region and further afield to address health issues, strengthen health systems and better insulate countries form pandemics and disease threats.
