The two-day Scientific Congress, themed "Today's Research and Education for Tomorrow's Healthcare", attracted more than 650 research and education project submissions.
Between classes, research projects, ward rounds and family obligations, medical trainees can find it hard to find the time to study by reading through textbooks. A new free digital library of bite-sized medical presentations that can be watched anytime, anywhere, is now available for such busy trainees, as well as healthcare professionals worldwide and any member of the public keen to learn more about a disease or condition.
Called LearningIn10.com, the website was launched by Minister for Health, Mr Gan Kim Yong, at the SingHealth Duke-NUS Scientific Congress 2016 opening ceremony on 23 September, in the Singapore General Hospital (SGH) campus.
The website carries about 150 modules, each of them a 10-minute presentation video with a voice-over explanation, put together by medical specialists and faculty from SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre. It is continually updated and growing. Associate Professor Tan Thiam Chye, Duke-NUS faculty and Senior Consultant in KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, said that “Another 150 videos currently being developed, and I hope the portal will grow to contain about 1,000 videos.”
Other research developments were also announced at the Scientific Congress. One of them is a randomised control trial of a promising transitional care programme in SGH, led by Associate Professor Lee Kheng Hock, Senior Consultant at Department of Family Medicine & Continuing Care. Patients enrolled in the new programme showed a 20 to 30 per cent reduction of hospital readmission and length of stay in the hospital. With this result, the study will be scaled to benefit 5,000 patients in the next three years.
Over in the National Heart Centre Singapore, a research project in collaboration with the SingHealth Duke-NUS Institute of Precision Medicine and the Infocomm Media Development Authority is building a genomic and clinical database of 20,000 healthy individuals and heart disease patients to identify biomarkers for heart disease prediction. Recruitment for this study is ongoing.
The two-day Scientific Congress, themed "Today's Research and Education for Tomorrow's Healthcare", attracted more than 650 research and education project submissions. In his opening speech, Minister Gan noted the importance of new approaches in medical research and education: “We must rethink our approach and seek to transform our system to meet new challenges and importantly, ensure sustainability.
"This is where meaningful research and relevant education can play an important role to facilitate the transformation needed to tackle healthcare challenges for the future.”
This year’s Scientific Congress was the largest to date, attended by more than 3,000 delegates, and 110 international and local speakers. 13 outstanding educators were recognised at the Golden Apple Awards Ceremony during the Congress for their contributions to healthcare education.
