Entering a new Era of Excellence in Academic Medicine

In 2006, the Biomedical Sciences International Advisory Panel recommended that Singapore must develop one or two strong academic medical centres as downstream vehicles to drive translational and clinical research, if the full potential of Singapore's biomedical sciences agenda were to be realised.

In its deliberations, the Panel's Executive Committee took into account the School of Medicine's admirable track record in medical student education and in conducting world-class research. The committee also recognised that the School had for many years been collaborating closely with the adjacent National University Hospital in multiple areas including clinical research and patient care.

A landmark decision was subsequently taken by the Singapore Government to bring the National University Hospital, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and the Faculty of Dentistry under a common governance structure resulting in the formation of the National University Health System.

As a further testimony of the Government's recognition of the great potential such a synergy would produce and the excellent work that already existed, the Ministry of Health made the decision to set up two new national centres of medical excellence in cancer and cardiovascular disease under NUHS. The two new centres - National University Cancer Institute (NUCI) and National University Heart Centre (NUHC), would provide care for the increasing numbers of ageing patients in Singapore who require complex care in these two areas.

About Us

Incorporated on 23 January 2008, the National University Health System aims to bring to life the synergies and goals that will be achieved from the integration of education, research and clinical care. These include training a cadre of healthcare providers and scientists whilst conducting research that focuses on bringing solution to this region's major healthcare challenges.

The comprehensive infrastructure on the Kent Ridge campus will be developed to include extensive research and education facilities to be housed in the NUHS flagship Centre for Translational Medicine building, and two national centres for Cancer and Cardiovascular medicine at the NUH site.

National University Hospital

The National University Hospital (NUH) is a specialist hospital that provides advanced, leading-edge medical care. Equipped with state-of-the-art facilities as well as dedicated and well-trained staff, NUH is a major referral centre that delivers tertiary care for a wide range of medical specialties including Cardiology, Gastroenterology & Hepatology, Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Oncology, Ophthalmology, Paediatrics and Orthopaedic Surgery.

Backed by substantive expertise and experience, NUH has been chosen by the Ministry of Health to develop two new national specialist centres to meet the growing need for heart and cancer treatments.

The coming together of NUH and the National University of Singapore's Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and Faculty of Dentistry under the joint entity, National University Health System (NUHS), boosts its international standing as a university hospital and brings about a greater synergy that enhances its capability to:

• Deliver excellent patient care and services
• Translate the latest clinical research into safe and advanced treatments to benefit patients
• Train future generations of doctors more effectively

In 2004, NUH became the first Singapore hospital to receive accreditation by the Joint Commission International (JCI), an international stamp for excellent clinical practices in patient care and safety. It was also the first hospital in Singapore to receive a triple ISO certification concurrently for Quality, Environmental, and Occupational Health & Safety Management Systems in 2002.

» Visit NUH website

Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine

The Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine was first established as the Straits and Federated Malay States Government Medical School in 1905. It was founded by a group of Singaporeans who raised an appeal for public funds to set up Singapore's own medical school. This medical school was the founding institution of what would become the National University of Singapore. In 2005, as the medical school celebrated its centennial, it received a transformational gift of $100 million from the Yong Loo Lin Trust, which was matched by the Government to create a fund of $200 million. In recognition of this generosity and foresight, the school was named the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine.

Today, the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, an integral part of the National University Health System, offers one of the finest undergraduate and graduate medical programmes in the Asia Pacific region that goes beyond training doctors and nurses.

Collaborative centres with industry partners have also been created through the NUS-University of Basel-Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases, the Lilly-NUS Centre for Clinical Pharmacology, the A*STAR-NUS-Siemens Clinical Imaging Research Centre, Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Centre for Health Sciences Research with RAND-Health and many others.

In 2007, NUS was ranked number one in Asia and 12th in the world for Life Sciences and Biomedicine by the Times Higher Education Supplement (THES), providing signal affirmation that the School was moving very much in line with its vision.

» Visit Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine website

Faculty of Dentistry

The Faculty of Dentistry will be celebrating 80 years of Dental Education in Singapore in 2009. The very first class intake of 7 students was in 1929. Since then, the Faculty has expanded with increase in student enrolment of both undergraduate and postgraduate students to 221 today with the conduct of a well established Bachelor of Dental Surgery programme, together with internationally recognised postgraduate residency training programmes, the Master of Science and PhD research programmes.

» Visit Faculty of Dentistry website