National Healthcare Group

Heartfelt Thanks to All Our Partners   Excited by the various partnerships unveiled at our 22nd Singapore Health and Biomedical Congress (SHBC). Deeply grateful for our partners’ resources and time in driving our Adding 15 million Years of Healthy Life social movement together. We stand firm in spurring people to take ownership of their health and live more of their life-years in good physical, mental, and social health to enjoy what matters to them for longer.   It’s been a while since I "planted" a tree sapling! Did so yesterday, fun. Nature has a restorative effect on mental health and well-being. NHG is thus happy to be the first public healthcare cluster to formalise our partnership with National Parks Board, and together with Care Corner, NTUC Health Co-operative Limited, and SPD to raise more interest and exposure to gardening and therapeutic horticulture activities for our residents across different demographics for a start. We hope this move will keep them creatively engaged, connected, and happy. We’ll also be working closely with NParks on ways to include therapeutic gardens and/or nodes into NHG’s upcoming institutions.    Helping 2,000 smokers quit the habit every year? Yes, you read right. It’s a goal affirmed by our partnership with Guardian Singapore Health & Beauty, Watsons Singapore Personal Care Stores, and Unity Pharmacy, sealed this morning at SHBC. Patients in Central and North Singapore who wish to quit smoking will be co-managed by our polyclinics/ specialist clinics, and their preferred retail pharmacy at an agreed location in the community. The public may also approach any of the participating retail pharmacies to enrol in the smoking cessation programme. In addition to such preventive health counselling, we’ll be providing medication therapy management services in future.    Looking forward to building a caring and healthier Central and North region with our GP and community partners. Do join us in this #15M social movement towards better health for all.

#SHBC2024 is a wrap! #15M This year, we saw an astounding: 4,000 Participants, 400 Posters at the Poster Village, 19 Booths and Exhibitions, 12 Tracks, 4 Symposiums and 4 Plenary Speakers, and 2 Satellite Conferences over 2 Days A special shout-out to our colleagues, industry partners, community partners, exhibitors and sponsors for the success of our annual flagship event. Stay tuned for a bigger, better #SHBC2025!

At this year's Singapore Health and Biomedical Congress (SHBC) 2024, NHG and Nanyang Technological University Singapore (NTU Singapore)’s Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine) jointly established a new Academic Health System (AHS). It will focus on translating academic endeavours into real-world outcomes, to better carry out the missions of enhancing patient care, optimising health service delivery, and improving population health. Having partnered LKCMedicine for a decade, the NHG-LKCMedicine-NTU Singapore AHS is the next step to deepen the engagements and collaborations with the wider NTU community to achieve a tighter integration of healthcare, education, and research to drive better care outcomes for our patients and population. This will allow us to tap on biological sciences, data sciences, engineering, social sciences and business to foster a more holistic approach towards translational research and education. “The establishment of this first AHS in Singapore will facilitate application of scientific discovery, technological advancement and socio-economic ideas and models to improve delivery of health services for the entire population. Translating knowledge into practice and nurturing young talents in the healthcare profession is our common goal in NHG and LKCMedicine,” adds Prof Joseph Sung, Dean, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, and Senior Vice President (Health & Life Sciences), NTU Singapore. Prof Benjamin Seet, Group Chairman Medical Board (Research), NHG, shares, “Traditionally, medical education and practice have revolved around the biomedical and clinical sciences. This is no longer adequate today. In the AHS we are setting up, the medical school serves as bridge into the rest of NTU Singapore – we will need to leverage on biological sciences, data sciences, engineering, social sciences and business, to keep up with technology and to train clinicians for tomorrow.” Under the AHS, Academic Clinical Programmes will be launched progressively over five years from 2024 to 2028, starting with Rehabilitation Medicine and Skin Health. By bringing together a multidisciplinary team of healthcare professionals, scientists and engineers, the Academic Clinical Programmes will enable real-world issues to inspire research, and for evidence-based insights to be effectively brought into policy and practice. This approach has been proven to deliver better clinical outcomes, accelerate adoption of new technologies, and to provide a richer learning environment and experience for future healthcare leaders and professionals. Read more in The Straits Times: https://lnkd.in/ghwyMdrQ #SHBC2024 #15M

Patients and residents will soon have more access to preventive health counselling and medication therapy management services, as we inked an agreement of collaboration with Guardian Singapore Health & Beauty, Watsons Singapore Personal Care Stores, and Unity Pharmacy earlier this morning at the Singapore Health and Biomedical Congress (SHBC). The retail chains are recognised as strong advocates of preventive care, and this partnership serves to expand the collaborative efforts in enhancing quality health for the population. With stores in key locations, including Central and North Singapore, this expanding network bodes well for patients and residents to access preventive health counselling and medication therapy management services at a location closer to home. This collaboration starts off with smoking cessation counselling. Patients who are keen to kick the habit can be referred by participating NHG institutions to their preferred retail pharmacy location. Patients’ progress will be jointly managed. Members of the public can also walk into any of the participating retail pharmacies to enrol in this programme. With this collaboration, NHG aims to reduce the smoking prevalence from 8.8 percent to 8 percent in Central and North Singapore by 2030, helping about 2,000 smokers quit the habit every year in this region. “We have implemented a collaborative workflow across NHG institutions and all retail pharmacies, facilitated by designated points of contact. The retail pharmacies will reach out to patients within four weeks of referral to schedule follow-up appointments,” says Ms Hong Yee Lim, Group Chief Pharmacist, NHG, and co-lead of the NHG Smoking Cessation Workgroup. Ms Lee Shwu Chin, Senior Cluster Pharmacy Manager, Watson’s Personal Care Stores, shares more about the prgoramme: “Each session will typically have a duration of 15 to 30 minutes, depending on the complexity of each case. For example, in the first session, the pharmacist will collect detailed information about the patient's smoking habits, daily routine, and other relevant factors. This information enables the pharmacist to customise the counseling sessions to effectively meet the patient's unique needs.” The retail pharmacy will provide smoking cessation counselling and customised interventions with each recruited patient. The patient’s smoking status will be tracked at three and six months, and updated to the referring NHG institution accordingly. The agreements were signed by (seated from L to R) Ms Li Ling Chong, GM, Unity Pharmacy; Mr Naresh Kalani, MD, Guardian Health & Beauty; NHG Deputy Group CEO (Clinical and Academic Development) Prof Jing Jih Chin, and Ms Irene Lau, MD - Watsons Singapore and Regional Brand Marketing Director - Watsons International.   #SHBC2024 #15M

Glad to host Health Minister Ong Ye Kung at the opening of our 22nd Singapore Health and Biomedical Congress today. Wonderful to have many partners committing to our collective goal of adding 15 million years of healthy life for our residents in Central and North Singapore!   We were excited by Minister’s announcements on accelerating efforts in leveraging AI and other healthtech for our sector. No let up by National Healthcare Group on this either. We're aligned with MOH’s larger plans. AI will be the next wave of technological revolution, and for NHG, if harnessed well and used responsibly, AI will be a formidable momentum multiplier in achieving our goal. That’s why we're investing further in AI with our Health Empowered by AI Launchpad (HEAL). It will be a one-stop shop for user champions who want to use AI, and the engine room to drive NHG-wide adoption of proven pilots. HEAL will ensure effective decisions, implementation and change management across our cluster to help us consistently and sustainably adopt AI solutions at the enterprise level. It will also act as a guard rail to help balance speed and agility in our implementation with robust governance, validation and safety of data. As we move along, we'll level up our AI literacy and competencies, updating our clinical ops model, SOPs and manpower mix too.    Being a Regional Health Manager, NHG needs to develop knowledge and evidence to enhance care and population health capabilities that are different from those of a healthcare provider to succeed. Training our next generation of healthcare and health workers on operationalising such new knowledge and innovations is a must. It will be multi-specialty, multi-disciplined and multi-professional in nature, encompassing behavioural and data sciences, technology, engineering, and process innovation. I'm thus excited about our new Academic Health System (AHS) jointly set up with Nanyang Technological University Singapore's Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine. AHS will focus on designing evidence-based population health interventions that translate into better prevention, better integrated care, and better cost-effectiveness in the real world to impact our residents’ health and quality of life, enabling us to fulfil our goal of adding 15 million years of healthy life.

The National Healthcare Group (NHG) kicked off our 22nd Singapore Health and Biomedical Congress (SHBC) 2024 this morning, with 2,000 international and local participants in attendance! The theme "Adding 15 million Years of Healthy Life” reflects our collective goal of delaying the onset of serious illness and raising the healthspan and lifespan for our residents in Central and North Singapore. To achieve this, NHG is augmenting our efforts with partners in health, community, academia, and industry. Here are some of the several multi-partner initiatives that were launched at this year's SHBC: - Setting up of an Academic Health System with Nanyang Technological University Singapore and Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine to power research, outcomes and impact - Deepening partnerships with National Parks Board and community retail pharmacies like Watsons Singapore, Guardian Singapore and Unity Pharmacy to extend reach and care into community - Embracing and scaling the adoption of AI to transform delivery of healthcare and health via our Health Empowered by AI Launchpad (HEAL) - Launch of the ‘Adding 15 million Years of Healthy Life’ movement to encourage residents to connect and act together for health as caring communities, together with community partners and resident leaders Guest-of-Honour for the opening ceremony, Minister for Health Ong Ye Kung said in his keynote address that healthcare is at the verge of a historical technological breakthrough, and the convergence of genomics, AI and the focus on preventive care will have profound impact on healthcare. The Congress is happening at Singapore Expo today and tomorrow. #SHBC2024 #15M

Exciting news! The NHG Cares App now lets you print and store your MC and Test results with ease! On top of that, you can also keep your medical documents organised and accessible at your fingertips.   Stay on top of your health—download the latest version of our app today!   #NCA #NHGCares #YourHealthInYourHands #MedicalDocuments #StayOrganized #HealthManagement

Prof Chee Yam Cheng spent his career building the foundations of Singapore’s healthcare system, turning it into one of the world’s best today. In this interview, Prof Chee shares how general medicine has grown since he started his career, his take on a “systems-based approach” for healthcare, and his pearls of wisdom for aspiring doctors as he reflects on his journey. Prof Chee was the Group CEO for the National Healthcare Group (NHG) from 2011 - 2015. He is currently the President of the Singapore Medical Council, Senior Advisor to NHG, and an Emeritus Consultant at Tan Tock Seng Hospital. Read more about his journey in the article here. The interview is taken from Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine’s coffee table book “History Taking History Making: Walking into Singapore's Medical Story”: https://lnkd.in/gAn_3M-z #nhg #LKCMedicine #healthcare #singapore

Prof Chew Chin Hin, Emeritus Consultant at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, takes you back in time, as he shares the influences that shaped his outlook on patient care, and reminisce events that shaped his illustrious career in healthcare. Find out what drives him to continuously pursue a higher level of excellence, decades after he started his career in 1955. Take a walk into medical history with LKCMedicine’s coffee table book “History Taking History Making: Walking into Singapore's Medical Story”: https://lnkd.in/gAn_3M-z Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine #nhg #LKCMedicine #healthcare #singapore

Nanyang Technological University Singapore Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine and NHG have jointly launched the new Centre of AI in Medicine (C-AIM) to advance the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare, with Mr Kiat How Tan, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Digital Development and Information, gracing the event as the Guest-of-Honour! C-AIM will focus on four key clinical domains: mental health, elderly frailty, medical imaging, and cancer screening, to drive its research and innovation efforts in studying and translating innovative AI technologies into clinical practice. The event also saw NHG and NTU signing a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA), and signing a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) with Olympus. Professor Benjamin Seet, Group Chairman Medical Board (Research), NHG, said, “Ultimately, the patient remains on the centre-stage. The true test for AI is how its deployment in the hospital, clinic or community impacts health outcomes for patients and the population. We would want to see its impact and value in a real-world setting.”