Back

National Medical Excellence Awards 2012: Celebrating our best medical talent

In the month of August, Singaporeans celebrate all things ‘national’. As we continue to enjoy the festive and patriotic mood from National Day that took place on 9 August, we now honour some of our best talents who have excelled and contributed significantly in medicine, with the National Medical Excellence Awards (NMEA).

Ten outstanding clinicians were the recipients of the annual NMEA at the awards dinner held at the Hilton Hotel on 28 August 2012. This year marks the fifth edition of the NMEA, an initiative of the Ministry of Health.

NMEA’s awardees include individuals and teams who have distinguished themselves in medicine, clinical research, clinical quality, education, training and mentorship. This year, the recipients come from a range of disciplines such as the fields of paediatric liver transplantation, obstetrics & gynaecology, orthopaedic surgery and ophthalmology.

NMEA 2012 Award Recipients

National Outstanding Clinician Award

There are two recipients this year. The first recipient is Professor K Prabhakaran from the National University Hospital (NUH). He is the pioneer and leader of paediatric liver transplantation in Singapore. An outstanding paediatric surgeon, he is credited with many “firsts” in paediatric surgery in the country. He has also played an important role in making Singapore the best paediatric liver transplantation centre in the region. In addition to his responsibilities, he has found time to do voluntary work, having trained surgeons in developing countries in Asia to perform complex surgeries in children.

The second recipient for this category is Professor Wong Hee Kit, a trailblazer in the field of orthopaedic surgery. He is credited with pioneering many new treatment methods, including the minimally invasive surgical technique of thoracoscopic anterior spinal fusion for scoliosis, which he later paired with instrumentation. Professor Wong is also from NUH.

National Outstanding Clinician Scientist Award

Professor Pierce Chow from the Singapore General Hospital is this year’s recipient for the National Outstanding Clinician Scientist Award. He has contributed much in clinical and translational research in hepatocellular carcinoma, the third most common cancer in Asia. His contributions have helped to improve the care and management of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. Prof Chow’s work is widely recognised and he has also more than 160 peer reviewed publications to his name.

National Outstanding Clinician Mentor Award

This year, the National Outstanding Clinician Mentor Award goes to Professor George Yeo from the KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital. Prof Yeo is outstanding in his contributions to training and mentoring. He personally trained many obstetricians in the safe conduct of prenatal diagnostic procedures using technologies like simulation and software to enable effective training and research.

National Outstanding Clinician Educator Award

To recognise the importance of clinician educators in preparing the next generation of clinicians for their work, the National Outstanding Clinician Educator Award was introduced last year. This year, Associate Professor Lim Tock Han from the National Healthcare Group (NHG), is the recipient of the award for this category. A/Prof Lim was NHG’s first Designated Institutional Official (DIO) for the Residency Programmes and he played a key role in the successful implementation of residency programmes in Singapore. As Assistant CEO (Education & Research) at NHG, A/Prof Lim will oversee NHG’s support of Singapore’s new medical school – the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine.

National Outstanding Clinical Quality Activist Award

Adjunct Associate Professor Tai Hwei Yee from Tan Tock Seng Hospital is awarded the National Outstanding Clinical Quality Activist Award this year. Holding multiple portfolios, she has effectively driven various initiatives that focused on improving patient safety and clinical quality. She had also served and led beyond her own organisation and institution and chaired the Safe Medication Practices workgroup in the National Medication Safety Taskforce.

National Clinical Excellence Team Award

The NUH team led by Associate Professor Sophia Ang is awarded the National Clinical Excellence Team Award this year. Her team members include Dr Sharon Saw, Associate Professor James Yip and Dr Sandhya Mujumdar. Their award-winning innovative project on “Critical Lab Result Alert System” leveraged on technology to help significantly improve the outcomes, standards, safety and quality of patient care in NUH.

Annex A: Full citations of the award winners
Prof Pierce Chow (Prof & Course Director, Duke-NUS; Senior Consultant, Dept of General Surgery, SGH) and Prof George Yeo (Adjunct Prof, Duke-NUS; Head & Senior Consultant, Dept of Maternal Fetal Medicine, KKH)
Annex B: NMEA Information Sheet

Extracted from the Ministry of Health Press Room, Aug 29, 2012