MBBS (S’pore), FRCS Ed(A&E), PBM
Senior Consultant
Advisor Disaster Site Medical Command
Clinical Associate Professor Suresh Pillai, MBBS (S'pore), FRCS Ed(A&E), PBM is a Senior Consultant in the Emergency Medicine Department of National University Hospital. After his basic MBBS qualifications from the National University of Singapore, he obtained his Fellowship from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in Accident & Emergency Medicine. He was awarded a Health Manpower Development Plan Award from MOH for a Fellowship in Toxicology at the San Francisco Poison Control Centre in 1999. He was also awarded the Public Service Medal (PBM) at the 2005 National Day Awards for his efforts in organizing and spearheading humanitarian medical relief missions to Indonesia and Sri Lanka during the catastrophic 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami.
Clinical Assoc Prof Suresh's passion and strengths lie in teaching medical students at the Undergraduate Level, Medical Trainees at the post-graduate Basic Specialist Trainee (BST) and the Advanced Specialist (AST) levels and nursing students at the Basic and Advance Diploma Level. Assoc Prof Suresh is also actively involved in preparing local and overseas candidates for the MRCS / MMed (A&E) and now the MCEM exams, for which he also serves as an examiner and core faculty. He is also an examiner for the Emergency Medicine Exit Examinations for Advanced Specialist Trainees.
His teaching abilities have garnered him several Awards including The Dean's Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in 2007, the Medical Society Teacher's Day Award in 2008 and voted one of the top ten tutors in the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine in 2009. He was the Departmental Director in Undergraduate Emergency Medical Education and was responsible for organizing the widely popular undergraduate curriculum in Emergency Medicine at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. Under his stewardship, the Emergency Medicine Posting has consistently emerged as one of the top three undergraduate disciplines as voted by medical students. He is currently actively involved in the review of the medical undergraduate curriculum and simulation training at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. He is also involved actively in Life Support Training both at NUH and NUS and is the Basic Cardiac Life Support (BCLS) Course Director for both institutions. He is also an instructor for the Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) and Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLC) Courses.
His other areas of active involvement include Disaster Preparation and Readiness both at the hospital, national and international levels. He is the Disaster Coordinator for the Emergency Department and NUH and has also served several terms as Deputy Commander of the Disaster Site Medical Command HQ of MOH that is responsible for coordinating medical teams at the site of any civil emergency or disaster in Singapore. He is a lecturer and trainer at the HazMat Medical Life Support Course conducted by MOH at the Institute of Medical Simulation and Education. He has also coordinated the development of the NUHS Humanitarian Medical Relief Volunteer Programme. He has also been seconded to the Ministry of Health as Project Consultant and has developed national medical response plans for radiation emergencies in Singapore. He has been appointed Chairman of the Medical Services Subcommittee of the APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) Meetings in Singapore in 2008-2009 that is responsible for organizing medical support for local and foreign delegates including Ministers and Heads of State and Government during the APEC Conferences. He has also been appointed Deputy Chairman of the Medical Services Subcommittee for the inaugural 1st Youth Olympics in Singapore in 2010.He also served as a committee member of the World Association of Disaster and Emergency Medicine Committee on Education and Training in Disaster Medicine. Assoc Prof Suresh has also co-authored several chapters in the "Guide to Essentials in Medicine" (McGraw Hill Publishers).
