LKCMedicine hosts Imperial students for the CRI projects
For the very first time, six second-year students from Imperial College School of Medicine (Imperial) visited the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine) to undertake the Clinical Research and Innovation (CRI) Projects module.
The Imperial students were in Singapore from 20 May to 7 June and worked on two CRI projects, with three students on each project.
Introduced in 2018, the CRI Projects module takes place in the second year of the MBBS programme in Imperial, where students undertake three-week research experiences from a wide range of clinically related options. Year-two students work in groups of three to four on a project, which includes a three-week research experience and concludes with a showcase of projects at the Festival of Science.
During their time in Singapore, the Imperial students sat in two Year 1 Team-Based Learning (TBL) sessions and were pegged to Principal Investigators.
Amina Waheed, Christian Buckingham and Gurneet Kaur Brar worked on their project, "The treatment of autoimmune skin diseases: state of the art and opportunities" and were supervised by Professor Maurice van Steensel, LKCMedicine Professor of Dermatology and Skin Biology.
While Elissa Harb, Hanya Irfan and Xu Siyang embarked on their project, "Advance Care Planning – views from two cities". For their project, they were supervised by LKCMedicine Vice-Dean of Clinical Affairs Professor Pang Weng Sun and Dr Raymond Ng, a palliative care consultant at Tan Tock Seng Hospital.
Commenting on their three-week experience, Elissa said she was able to learn about the cultural differences between Singapore and the United Kingdom when it came to how people look at the end of life care. "I was able to learn about the differences in culture and compare the two systems," she added.
Meanwhile, Christian said he found the TBL sessions to be an eye-opener. "What I found interesting during my time at LKCMedicine was the Team-Based Learning sessions. They are very new and novel to me," he added.
Now that their time and research in Singapore is over, they will work on their CRI poster presentation and present them at the MBBS Year 2 Festival of Science in London.
On 20 May, the students met with Vice-Dean (Education) Professor Naomi Low-Beer, Vice-Dean (Faculty Affairs) Professor Michael Ferenczi as well as Vice-Dean (Clinical Affairs) Professor Pang Weng Sun for a briefing. They also caught up with Professor Low-Beer and Professor Pang on their last day.
Their stay in Singapore was not all about studying. On 4 June, some LKCMedicine Year 1 and Year 2 students took the Imperial students to various attractions in Singapore such as the Geylang Serai Ramadan Bazaar, Gardens by the Bay and Night Safari.
For the Imperial students, it was their first time in the sunny island. "This is my first time in Singapore. It is amazing and exciting to find out what Singapore is like, especially the culture and food," said Amina.