01 Dec 2010
New five-year deal sealed; more new bench-to-bedside treatments planned
THE Duke University medical school tie-up with the National University of Singapore (NUS) has been cemented for at least five more years.
The United States institution yesterday signed on for the second phase of the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, a speciality school that trains a small cohort of postgraduate students in clinical practice and research.
The signing ceremony, held at the school's Outram building, was witnessed by Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan and Education Minister Ng Eng Hen.
Professor Ranga Krishnan, dean of the school; Dr Victor Dzau, Duke's chancellor for health affairs; and NUS president Tan Chorh Chuan were also present.
The young medical school, which was set up in April 2005, can help to improve patient care in the coming years by taking new medical treatments from bench to bedside and vice versa, its leaders say.
It can do so by collaborating with SingHealth institutions such as Singapore General Hospital. For example, electronic patient data collected from hospitals can be studied for ways to improve health outcomes, said Dr Dzau, who spoke to The Straits Times ahead of the signing ceremony.
Duke-NUS health services researchers are already studying how new medical technologies are used in practice, and how best to care for patients with emerging infectious diseases and cancer.
They hope to use this research to inform public policy and clinical practice in Singapore, and provide models for health-care systems in other countries.
As an example of how science research can benefit patients, Prof Krishnan cited a collaboration between the Agency for Science, Technology and Research engineers and Duke-NUS researchers that used brainwave-reading devices to help children with attention disorders concentrate.
The school is also working with SingHealth to develop an academic medical campus where research will be a key part of patient care and doctors' education.
The first batch of 26 Duke-NUS medical students will graduate from their four-year course only in May next year, but some have already submitted research papers to top international journals.
Each subsequent cohort has just 56 students, about a quarter of the number at NUS' Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, which currently trains 250 to 260 students a year and plans to raise its intake to 300 next year.
Dr Dzau said the school complements NUS' undergraduate medical school and an upcoming medical school by Nanyang Technological University and London's Imperial College, which will take its first 50 students in 2013.
Mr Khaw agreed. Commenting on the Duke-NUS signing, he wrote on his blog yesterday: "Health care and medical education in Singapore are in a dynamic, creative phase of transformation.
"We are adding new hospitals and we are adding new medical schools. From Duke University, we have added an American perspective. From Imperial College, we will add a British perspective. The interactions and the synergy will, we believe, enrich all the players: NUS, Duke and Imperial.
"Singaporeans and the region will be the winners, this we are sure," the minister added.
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