The AMEI Golden Apple Awards recognise faculty and staff with active teaching roles in the SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre (AMC) and honour the best in healthcare education who have transformed teaching by engaging and inspiring learners.

Meet our winners!

Generativity Award for Educators

Prof Tan Kok Hian
Group Director and Senior Associate Dean, SingHealth Duke-NUS Institute for Patient Safety & Quality;
Senior Consultant, Department of Maternal Fetal Medicine, Division of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, KKH

Prof Tan Kok Hian was instrumental in shaping the academic medicine culture in the SingHealth Duke-NUS AMC. Not only did he lead the transformation of the residency system, he also pioneered the synergising of clerkships across three medical school systems – NUS Medicine, Duke-NUS and the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine).

Prof Tan also facilitated the set-up of six SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Clinical Programmes (ACPs) from 2015 to 2017, with ACP Leads in Radiological Sciences, Pathology, Anaesthesiology & Perioperative Sciences, Oral Health, Family Medicine and Emergency Medicine. Today, these ACPs continue to foster and encourage a culture of learning and mentorship across institutions and professional groups.

Playing a key role in shaping the culture of patient safety and quality in SingHealth, Prof Tan led the formation of the SingHealth Duke-NUS Institute for Patient Safety and Quality (IPSQ) in 2017, working with the IPSQ Council to formulate effective strategies for patient safety and culture and quality care.

To advance patient advocacy and engagement, Prof Tan also initiated and oversaw the SingHealth Patient Advocacy Network (SPAN), a self-driven network of patients and caregivers who work with hospital staff to improve patient care.

Outstanding Educator Award

Dr Warren Fong
Programme Director, SingHealth Rheumatology Senior Residency Programme;
Consultant, Department of Rheumatology & Immunology, SGH

As Programme Director of the SingHealth Rheumatology Senior Residency Programme, Dr Warren Fong has been deeply involved in the development of a vast array of medical curricula and mentoring programmes. For example, Dr Fong personally mentored residents in planning of the CADENCE programme, a Resident-led initiative where residents teach their juniors and incorporates simulated and real patients to enhance their learning experience. He further provided personal mentorship to Internal Medicine Resident Leaders in the ZENITH programme, which aims to equip residents with skills and knowledge to teach and mentor as they develop as medical educators.

Dr Fong is also highly involved in promoting junior doctors’ well-being and preventing burnout through peer support. In 2019, he worked with residents to develop a peer mentoring programme for Year 4 Duke-NUS medical students who were preparing for their final year, to identify those who were academically weak or at risk of burnout due to academic stress. He also mentors Chief Residents and Internal Medicine Residents in the CASA programme, a formal programme of peer support in the Internal Medicine Residency programme.

Outstanding Young Educator Award

Dr Gayathri Devi Nadarajan
Consultant, Department of Emergency Medicine, SGH

Key to the development of her Department’s education programme, Dr Gayathri Devi Nadarajan has been tireless in introducing and refining novel and innovative techniques to improve teaching and training. She has created a wide array of educational resources such as teaching videos, blogs, simulation exercises and competitions to encourage doctors of all levels to hone their skills and share their learning experiences.

Dr Nadarajan strongly believes that education goes beyond the hospital – she has actively recruited and taught cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) to various communities in Singapore through the Dispatcher Assisted First Responder (DARE) programme, which won the AM•EI Golden Apple Programme Excellence Award in 2017.

Not only does Dr Nadarajan’s passion for the community extend beyond hospital walls, it also extends beyond borders. Through Project Aasha, she has tutored and mentored LKCMedicine students on methods and approaches to use when teaching school children in Nepal. She also supported the expansion of the project to involve other specialties and professions in order to provide more holistic care to beneficiaries.

Ms Tan Il Fan
Nurse Clinician (Advanced Practice Nurse), NNI

Ms Tan Il Fan started her specialisation in neuroscience nursing in 2010 and is a well-respected nurse educator among her peers and colleagues. In particular, she found a key interest in stroke care.

Since 2012, Ms Tan has served as teacher and lecturer to students, other nurses and healthcare professionals, not just in SingHealth, but across nursing schools and healthcare institutions in Singapore, designing and developing curriculum and training programmes tailored to each group of learners.

With a strong interest and passion for Interprofessional Education (IPE), Ms Tan has initiated and led several programmes to improve collaboration and synergise communications between healthcare professionals caring for stroke patients. These programmes span the continuum from hyperacute management of stroke to the transition of care and eventual long-term care of stroke patients.

One of these programmes include an online platform with contributions from all healthcare professionals to share knowledge on stroke management. Access to the platform is free to all healthcare professionals and students.

Dr Wang Aiwen
Principal Clinical Pharmacist, SGH

Dr Wang Aiwen has been the core preceptor in the SGH pre-registration pharmacist training* programme for the past 13 years, having personally trained over 300 pre-registration pharmacists and counting with Drug Information (DI) skills.

To solve the challenge of upskilling a growing number of trainees in 2012, Dr Wang developed a customised online learning programme, in partnership with SingHealth Academy, to supplement in-person trainings. To date, this course has trained over 200 allied health, medicine, pharmacy and nursing trainees. For her significant contributions and in recognition of her leadership qualities, Dr Wang received the Singapore Pharmacy Council (SPC) Excellent Preceptor Award in 2017.

Heavily involved in a broad range of educational activities for learners of all levels, Dr Wang’s passion for education has led her to design curricula and assessments both at SGH and at the national level. With her strong skills in e-learning and simulation, she also developed a successful online blended education programme in DI skills in 2012, which would later be modified to be taught at undergraduate level at the NUS Department of Pharmacy and benefit over 200 learners per year.

*Besides obtaining a degree in Pharmacy, one has to undergo training and to pass the assessments at an approved training institution to become a registered pharmacist. This is known as the pre-registration pharmacist training programme.

Programme Excellence Award

Front row, from L – R: Dr Deidre Anne De Silva, Unit Head & Senior Consultant, Department of Neurology, SGH; Ms Tan Il Fan, Nurse Clinician, NNI
Back row, from L – R: Ms Fu Liqing, Nurse Clinician, NNI; Dr Ng Wai May, Deputy Director, Nursing, NNI; Dr Kinjal Doshi, Principal Clinical Psychologist, SGH; Dr Shamala Thilarajah, Principal Physiotherapist, SGH

STRIPE (STRoke InterProfessional Education)
NNI & SGH

The management of stroke patients is often complex and requires support from healthcare workers from across professional groups. STRIPE is the first and only IPE programme for stroke in Singapore designed to provide learning opportunities and develop resources for interprofessional education, targeted at healthcare professionals and transprofessional education, which engages patients in the teaching process.

Since its implementation in 2017, the STRIPE programme has also integrated Interprofessional Collaboration and Practice (IPCP), where healthcare professionals from different disciplines work with patients, their families, caregivers and communities to provide and delivery quality care. With a myriad of education initiatives, research collaborations, quality improvement projects, value-based care, patient advocacy and team-building and networking, the programme aims to enhance the delivery of stroke care. 

The programme received the SingHealth IPE grant in 2017.

From L – R: Ms Ng Gaik Nai, Deputy Group Chief Nurse and Chief Nurse (Designate), SGH; Ms Wong Kin Ling, Assistant Director, Nursing, KKH

WE CARE
KKH

The WE CARE programme is a blended learning programme that focuses on open-mindedness, team interaction and a culture of appreciation to promote a positive work and ‘safe to speak up’ culture in KKH. From e-learning modules to face-to-face workshops, a variety of integrated videos, story-telling, case studies, reflection, games and role-play were developed and deployed to boost learners’ engagement and enhance knowledge retention. 

A year after the roll-out of the programme, staff indicated a remarkable improvement in open-mindedness, team interaction, satisfaction level, as well as perceived level of safety in speaking up for patient safety.

With the success of this initiative, the programme was endorsed as a core programme hospital-wide, with the aim to promote a psychologically safe environment for all staff.

Calling all educators! Nominations for the AMEI Golden Apple Awards 2021 is now opened. Submit your nominations by 30 April. Click here for more information!