LKCMedicine’s Art & Science of Medicine Festival 2025 Goes to the East!

LKCMedicine’s signature community outreach event descended on Our Tampines Hub to give residents in the East a rare peek into our research labs and classrooms.

In the last two years, the Festival toured Toa Payoh and Woodlands Admiralty, where it was met with huge success. Beyond winning the hearts of the residents, Art & Science of Medicine Festival  (ASMF)  has also gained international recognition. Last year’s edition was awarded Grand Gold, the highest honour for Special Event, by the Council for Advancement and Education (CASE), a renowned global non-profit association dedicated to educational advancement.

Themed “Your Health, Your Future”, the third edition of the ASMF drew a steady stream of about 4,000 visitors from 10am to 8pm, all eager and curious to try their hand at the various hands-on activities across 22 education and research booths. LKCMedicine researchers, faculty, staff, student ambassadors, alumni and partners turned up in full force to spotlight the School’s efforts at redefining medicine and transforming healthcare through education and research. 

The main programme opened with a performance by LKCrew, a group of LKCMedicine students. Their expressive contemporary dance was just the thing to put a smile on the faces of the visitors and welcome the Guest-of-Honour Ministry of Health’s Director-General of Health Professor Kenneth Mak.

LKCMedicine Dean Professor Joseph Sung, who is also NTU Senior Vice-President of Health and Life Sciences, proceeded to kick off the Festival with a welcome address. He briefly touched on the origins of ASMF and how it has evolved over the last few years.

“We organise this Festival because we believe that to train good medical doctors, we need to bring them to the real world, to interact with people, and demonstrate simple medical procedures. It is also a way for us to teach the residents how to look after themselves and their family members,” he elaborated.

Reflecting on the theme of the Festival during his speech, Prof Mak spoke about the attitudes Singaporeans should adopt in terms of their health, especially since our life expectancies have increased due to a higher standard of living.

He also noted that medical schools like  LKCMedicine have a  part to play in bolstering the population’s health and support our ageing community. “The School is helping us train doctors who can help us in our own life journey and help their patients with their long-term goals. LKCMedicine was established 15 years ago. Within this short period, they have already graduated over 800 doctors, all of whom are actively working in the community, ready to respond to the complex needs of our evolving healthcare system by providing very comprehensive person-centred care for their patients,” Prof Mak commended. 

He added, “I’m glad that the medical school’s efforts now go beyond teaching the doctors of tomorrow, but also holding community outreach efforts like [ASMF]…As the School, continues to grow and mature, they have identified new ways to contribute to our health by designing news ways of teaching doctors and promoting continuing professional development programmes.”

During the tour of the Festival, Prof Mak visited various booths alongside LKCMedicine and NHG Health leaders. He engaged with researchers at booths on AI in Medicine and rehabilitation medicine. Prof Mak also tried his hand at the School’s VR medical education tool and observed our alumni at the ultrasound station. 

The programme also featured a dialogue session moderated by Lead for Continuing & Community Care Associate Professor Wong Teck Yee, with panellists including  OPEN patient partner Ms Shannon Heo, alumnus Dr Ian Koh, students Melissa Hock and Muthukumaran Rohith. Bringing their different perspectives, they mapped transformations shaping Singapore’s healthcare system in the coming years. 

That was not all! There were a slew of talks and performances throughout the day. 

These included a rousing acapella set by MedLee; a fascinating talk on ageing and longevity, learning from the resilience of bats against viruses, by Nanyang Assistant Professor Ahn Matae; and an acupressure workshop to provide alternative methods to manage our wellbeing.

In addition to the exciting and informative line-up of stage programmes, the booths contained all manner of wonderous treasures and knowledge for the visitors to discover.

The Microbiome Medicine booth thrilled visitors with their interesting costumes and equally fascinating tips on gut health, while the Cancer Discovery and Regenerative Medicine team used zebrafish cells to showcase their work in cancer genesis and therapy, much to the amazement of children and adults. The TARIPH Centre booth reminded visitors to find wonder in simple, but vital, things like breathing well. 

Booths such as the Centre of AI in Medicine, Rehabilitation Research Institute of Singapore, and Data Science and AI booth demonstrated the potential of cutting-edge analytics and AI methodologies; and researchers at the Infectious Disease booth wowed visitors with a do-it-yourself DNA extraction using strawberries. Other popular stops included the Microbes around Us, Dementia Research Centre (Singapore) and HELIOS-SG100K which provided festival goers with free cognitive and health screenings, respectively. 

The Education booths – fronted by faculty, staff and students of our undergraduate and postgraduate programmes – were especially popular with families and prospective medical students.

The booths had highly interactive and well-thought-out activities, ranging from AI simulated medical games and being exposed to plastinated organs, to playing games to learning how to apply practical and life-saving skills such as CPR at home. Our students also proudly showcased their work through a presentation of their many local and overseas community service missions as well as their HeArtwork (heart illustrations and poems) for the Medical Humanities course.

As dusk began to fall, it was time to bring ASMF to a close, but not without the highly anticipated  Zumba session led by Student Life & Support Assistant Director Ms Ivis Wee. Attracted to the catchy tunes, curious on-lookers joined in the merriment and showed off their moves.

The third edition of the Art & Science of Medicine Festival was undeniably a hit for both the residents of Tampines and the wider LKCMedicine community.

Word on the [Tampines] street:

“I have been part of the Festival for two years and it is one of the best and most enjoyable events. I get to see people from the community visiting the Skin booth, trying to learn about the research we are doing. It is important that we can show what we do in the labs to the community and have a larger impact on society,” said LKCMedicine Associate Professor Navin Verma who is Director of the Skin Disease and Wound Repair programme.

“The event is very well-organised. The dialogue covered many areas and perspectives from the patient partner to the first-year student who is just starting out and the fourth-year student who is getting ready to enter work. It was very refreshing to hear from them,” shared festival goer Mr Yeo Eng Chian, an engineer.

“The booth where we learn about cancer cells and how it differs across different people was very interesting. It was very relevant to what we learnt in school this year,” remarked Kokone Takahashi, a medical student hopeful. The 17-year-old added, “I thought medical school would be mainly about content and knowledge that will be difficult to understand, but we learned a lot about the initiatives that LKCMedicine does for the community. That was very interesting, and it changed my perspective about how I view medical schools.”

“I saw human lungs and tissues in the body but I found the VR the most interesting. When I used the machine, I found myself in an ambulance. I also liked doing CPR on the dummy,” said 10-year-old Azra who visited the Festival with her parents.

“Whether you are a member of the public, a student or someone who works in the healthcare industry, there is really something for everyone. The Festival offers an opportunity to expose everyone to different projects and different sides of LKCMedicine. [Being at ASMF] has been a very fulfilling experience so far because I am here with my peers and have also interacted with visitors who are hoping to apply to LKCMedicine next year,” said Urvee Mishra, a second-year LKCMedicine student.