Healthcare Policy and Values in Singapore, Now and in the Future

  

Programme:

6.00pm - Registration Opens

6.45pm - Audience to be searted at Tembusu College Multi-Purpose Hall

6.50pm - Arrival of Speakers

7.00pm - Introduction to the Tembusu Forum by Tembusu College Master, A/P Gregory Clancey

7.05pm - Introduction of speakers by forum moderator, Prof. Tommy Koh

7.15pm - First Speaker: Dr Lam Pin Min

7.30pm - Second Speaker: Dr. Paul Ananth Tambyah

7.45pm - Third Speaker: Dr. Jeremy Lim

8.00pm - Fourth Speaker: Dr. Phua Kai Hong

8.15pm - Question and Answer Session

Registration has closed.

 

Speakers:

Dr. Lam Pin Min
Chairman, Government Parliamentary Committee for Health Advisor to Sengkang West GROs
Chairman, AMK Town Council
Senior Consultant, Ophthalmology Service, KK Women's & Children's Hospital

Sub-topic: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of the Singapore's Healthcare System

 

Dr Paul Ananth Tambyah
Associate Professor of Medicine, Department of Medicine, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, NUS

Sub-topic: The Need for Healthcare Reform: A View from the Trenches

Associate Professor Paul Ananth TAMBYAH is an Infectious Diseases Physician in the Dept of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS). He graduated from NUS in 1988 and after completing fulltime national service, did postgraduate training at the University of Wisconsin. After returning to Singapore, he has held a number of academic and professional appointments both locally and internationally. He is currently secretary general of the Asia Pacific Society of Clinical Microbiology. He is also active in Singapore civil society as a founding member of MARUAH and Exco member of Action for AIDS. In his personal capacity, he has been involved in campaigning for healthcare reform in the last few years.

 

Dr Jeremy Lim
Principal Consultant, Insights Health Associates
Chair, Steering Committee, NUS Initiative to Improve Health in Asia (NIHA)

Sub-topic: Changing Political Philosophy of the Singapore Health System and What the Future May Hold

Dr Jeremy LIM - MBBS, MPH, MRCS (Edin), MMed (Surg), FAMS - has held senior level executive roles in the Singapore public and private sectors, the most recent being CEO of Fortis Colorectal Hospital, the first specialty colorectal hospital in Southeast Asia. In a previous role as Vice-President Special Projects in Fortis Healthcare International, he is involved in post-merger integration and exploration of projects (partnerships/ acquisitions) in Southeast Asia, South Asia and the Middle East. His public sector experiences include Senior Consultant in the Ministry of Health Singapore, Director Research and Education in SingHealth, Singapore’s largest healthcare group and Executive Director (and later Chair) of the SingHealth Centre for Health Services Research which focuses on in-depth analytics to support board and senior management decision making. In addition, Dr. Lim maintains faculty appointments in the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health and Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, National University of Singapore where he teaches health policy and management. He is an active commentator on health policy locally and internationally and has written extensively on health policy and management in various Singapore publications including the Straits Times and Business Times newspapers. He is chair of the steering committee for NIHA (NUS Initiative to Improve Health in Asia), an initiative to strengthen health policy research and education in Asia, Member, International Advisory Board, Health Authority Abu Dhabi and Board Member, Advisory Council Behavioral Sciences Institute, Singapore Management University. 

Dr Lim is an alumnus of the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore where he completed both undergraduate medical and graduate surgical training (Masters in Medicine [Surgery]). He completed the Masters in Public Health programme at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health under the aegis of the Fulbright programme and the Senior Management Programme, Civil Service College Singapore. Dr Lim serves in the community in a number of roles including Secretary of the College of Public Health and Occupational Physicians, Academy of Medicine, Singapore, President of the Fulbright Association (Singapore) and President of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health alumni chapter.

He is currently writing a book on the Singapore health system and teaching a course in NUS on healthcare management.

 

Dr Phua Kai Hong
Associate Professor of Health and Social Policy, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy

Sub-topic: Balancing Efficiency Versus Equity in Healthcare: Valuing Economic and Social Costs

Dr PHUA Kai Hong is a tenured professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, where he lectures in the graduate programs in public policy, public health and business administration. He was previously Associate Professor and Head, Health Care Division and Head, Health Services Research Unit, Department of Community, Occupational & Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies, Singapore. He graduated with honours cum laude from Harvard University and received graduate degrees from the Harvard School of Public Health (Master’s in Health Services Administration & Population Sciences) and the London School of Economics & Political Science (PhD in Social Administration specializing in Health Economics). He was the recipient of a Harvard College Scholarship, the Sigma Scholarship from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University, and an NUS Overseas Graduate Scholarship.

Dr Phua was the co-lead and corresponding author of the overview article in the Lancet Series on Health in Southeast Asia (2011). As Principal Investigator, he leads the Rockefeller-funded project on Asian Trends Monitoring awarded to the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and the Centre for Strategic Futures. He is also leading the Asian component of an Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) comparative research project on health and migration. He delivered the ST Lee Lecture 2012 at the Menzies Centre for Health Policy of the University of Sydney and the Australian National University.

Dr Phua has produced numerous publications and papers in health policy and related areas, including the history of health services, health and population ageing, health economics and financing. He is the author of Privatization and Restructuring of Health Services in Singapore (1991) and co-author of Annotated Bibliography on Ageing and the Elderly in Singapore (1999), Population Dynamics and Infectious Diseases in Asia (2006) and Health Economics: An Introduction for Biomedical and Health Professionals (2009). He is currently working on research projects in comparative health policy, especially organizational and financing systems, and health sector reforms in the Asia-Pacific region. He is an Associate Editor, Singapore Economic Review and had served in the past as Associate Editor, Asia-Pacific Journal of Public Health and Chair, Asia-Pacific Medical Devices & Diagnostics Council, International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR), Chairman, Executive Board, Asia-Pacific Health Economics Network (APHEN); Regional Council, International Health Economics Association (IHEA); Asian Health Systems Reform Network (DRAGONET); 

Dr Phua received The Outstanding Young Person (TOYP) award in 1992 for his contributions to health policy and community service in Singapore. He was a past Vice-Chairman of the Singapore Red Cross, served on the Board of Management of the Home Nursing Foundation and was a founder Council Member and Chairman, Resource Committee of the Gerontological Society. He was Chairman of the Task Force on Social Services 2015, to develop a strategic plan for the National Council of Social Service. He was appointed on many national advisory committees, including the Government Parliamentary Committee Resource Panel on Health (1988-1996, 2007-current). At the corporate level, he was past director of Health Management International Holdings and the NTUC Healthcare Cooperative. Internationally, he has served as Chairman, Technical Advisory Group on Health Sector Development (2000-2005) of the WHO Western Pacific Regional Office, and moderated the Ministerial Roundtable on Health and Poverty at the WHO Regional Meeting in 2000 and WHO Bi-Regional Meeting on Health Care Financing in 2005. He has consulted for numerous governments and international agencies throughout the Asia-Pacific region, including the Asia-Pacific Academic Consortium for Public Health, International Red Cross, Asian Development Bank, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for the Asia-Pacific, World Bank and World Health Organization.

 

Gallery

The Tembusu (Fagraea fragrans) is a large evergreen tree in the family Gentianaceae. It is native to Southeast Asia. Its trunk is dark brown, with deeply fissured bark, looking somewhat like a bittergourd. It grows in an irregular shape from 10 to 25m high. Its leaves are light green and oval in shape. Its yellowish flowers have a distinct fragrance and the fruits of the tree are bitter tasting red berries, which are eaten by birds and fruit bats.