News from NHG: Celebrating 15 Years of NHG Health-LKCMedicine Partnership

Fifteen years ago, Singapore embarked on an ambitious journey to transform its medical education landscape. The establishment of the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine) by Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) in partnership with Imperial College London marked a pivotal moment in addressing the nation's growing healthcare demands amid an ageing population and rising manpower needs.

At the heart of this transformation is the enduring partnership between LKCMedicine and NHG Health, united by a shared commitment to spearhead medical education and nurture the next generation of healthcare professionals. As LKCMedicine's primary clinical training partner, NHG Health has provided medical students with early and comprehensive exposure to real-world healthcare environments through seamless integration with our hospitals and polyclinics.

Medical Education that Improves Lives

The partnership between NHG Health and LKCMedicine has redefined how medical education translates into better patient care. What began as Singapore’s first clinically focused medical curriculum has evolved into a world-class model of education where learning is inseparable from practice, and innovation is measured by impact on patients and communities.

By leveraging NHG Health’s clinical strengths such as geriatrics, rehabilitation medicine, infectious diseases, mental health, and dermatology, this collaboration has created rich, authentic learning environments that integrate clinical training with education from day one. Since the first cohort of 52 students graduated in 2018, more than 170 LKCMedicine graduates have joined NHG Health as resident doctors—embodying a seamless pipeline from classroom to clinic, where education directly enhances care delivery.

Advancing Lifelong Learning for Better Care

Beyond undergraduate education, the partnership is building postgraduate pathways that equip healthcare professionals to meet emerging and ever-changing health challenges. The launch of the Master of Science in Holistic Palliative Care (HoPE) in 2024 marked a new chapter in workforce capability building. Upcoming programmes for obesity and metabolic health, psychology and dermatology, reflect our shared commitment to developing practitioners who can lead in areas of high population needs and transform patient outcomes through research-informed practice.

Harnessing AI and Digital Innovation for Clinical Impact

Education in the digital age must prepare clinicians to use technology ethically and effectively to improve care. NHG Health and LKCMedicine have jointly led initiatives in AI-powered and digital health education, developing courses that empower healthcare educators and clinicians to thrive in an AI-enabled future.

Our collaboration in AI-powered education research already has tangible results, from innovations in student assessment to transformative models of clinical teaching and published research in this space. The SGMed longitudinal database, integrating data from pre-medical education through residency (including NHG Health’s Next Generation Electronic Medical Record, NGEMR), is enabling powerful insights into how education shapes clinical performance. These insights drive learning analytics, predictive modelling, and continuous improvement—closing the loop between learning and better patient care.

Key Defining Milestones and Achievements

Over the past 15 years, the NHG Health-LKCMedicine partnership has garnered achievements across multiple dimensions, from education and talent development to groundbreaking research initiatives, earning recognition both nationally and internationally.

A significant milestone came in 2023 with the opening of co11ab Novena, Singapore's first biomedtech incubator embedded within a healthcare precinct. This innovative space unites clinical care, medical education, and research to nurture breakthrough health tech innovations from research to clinical application and commercialisation.

In alignment with NHG Health's five-year masterplan for 2024-2028 and the national Research, Innovation and Enterprise (RIE) 2030 framework, NHG Health and LKCMedicine renewed their commitment to deepen academic partnership in the areas of talent development and translational research and strengthen support for innovation and implementation.

• Currently, 48 NHG Health clinicians hold joint appointments for research and innovation with LKCMedicine, while 19 LKCMedicine faculty are embedded within NHG Health institutions.
• The Academy of Clinician Scientists and Innovators (ACSI), launched by NHG Health and LKCMedicine in September 2023, has engaged over 300 professionals, fostering a thriving research and innovation culture through networking, mentorship, and knowledge exchange initiatives.
• Some 29 NHG Health and LKCMedicine clinicians are recognised as national clinician-scientists and clinician-innovators.
• In FY2024, 42 clinicians and researchers received NMRC grants and awards—the highest number to-date. NHG Health lead principal investigators secured $36 million in national competitive grants and awards—approximately a quarter of all national awards issued. In addition, NHG Health and its partners including LKCMedicine were also successful for obtaining five large grants exceeding $5 million each (totalling over $50 million), including the prestigious NMRC National Innovation Challenge and Population Health Research Grant.

NHG Health and LKCMedicine have jointly established research institutes in key focus areas, namely the Skin Research Institute of Singapore (SRIS), Rehabilitation Research Institute (RRIS), TRipartite Programme in Infectious Diseases for New Discoveries and TreatmENT (TRIDENT) and the Asian Centre for Health Behavioural Insights & Interventions (HABITS). Such research institutes serve to bring together clinical, academic, and engineering expertise, with synergies between them ensuring that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

• SRIS, which includes A*STAR as a partner, has risen to become one of the leading skin research institutes globally. It celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2024, marking a decade of remarkable achievements in skin research and innovation.
• RRIS, which includes A*STAR as a partner, has evolved since its establishment in 2016 to sharpen its focus areas and is now entering a second phase, well-aligned with RIE2030’s ecosystem priority of healthy and successful longevity.
• TRIDENT, which includes A*STAR as a partner, was launched in 2024 to accelerate local research in infectious diseases. The programme has to-date awarded three large and nine pilot grants, which are positioned to develop into proposals for large competitive grants.
• HABITS, newly established in April 2025, is Singapore’s first unique academic-clinical unit for health behavioural insights and interventions, bringing together as well multiple schools within the broader NTU. It aims to create needle-moving impact on population health in the local and broader Asian context.

The launch of the NHG-LKCMedicine-NTU Singapore Academic Health System (AHS) at the Singapore Health & Biomedical Congress 2024 marked another watershed moment in the partnership's evolution. The AHS will extend beyond the medical school to the rest of NTU Singapore, representing a paradigm shift towards translating academic endeavours into tangible real-world outcomes that enhance patient care, optimise health service delivery, and improve population health across Singapore. This expanded collaboration has already yielded concrete results with the establishment of two pioneering Academic Clinical Programmes (ACPs): the Skin Health ACP, which leverages the partnership's decade-long expertise in dermatological research, and the Rehabilitation Health ACP, which addresses Singapore's growing needs in healthy ageing and functional recovery.

Celebrating Milestones, Shaping the Future

As the partnership enters its next phase, our joint commitment to developing future-ready healthcare professionals remains unwavering. Plans for FY2026 include launching four to six additional ACPs, with plans to engage the wider NTU community in future collaborations targeting critical areas such as mental health and ageing, to ensure that the partnership continues to address Singapore's evolving healthcare needs.

Together, NHG Health and LKCMedicine are shaping a future where every learner, educator, and clinician contributes to the goal: Better Education for Better Care.