Overview
NUHS has a very important track record of clinical research, hosting more than 100 clinical projects carried out within the National University Hospital and National University Singapore. This has led to discoveries that are reshaping the way we practice medicine, in Singapore and internationally.
In 2009, our institution hosted 19 new PI-initiated clinical trials and 33 new Sponsored clinical trials, with an estimate of 3247 patients actively participating in ongoing trials. The Investigational Medicine Unit (IMU) remains as our flagship centre within NUHS, established as a key centre to integrate ongoing research programmes to promote experimental therapeutics and investigational medicine discoveries into interventions that can advance patient care. Specially configured for the conduct of Good Clinical Practice compliant studies, the IMU concentrates on early research in humans, including Proof of Concept, Phase 1 and Phase 2a trials for novel drugs and diagnostics. Apart from the IMU, clinical trials are carried out within the clinic areas of the hospital.
NUHS has secured considerable amount of research funding over the last three years, not to mention those of which are supporting current ongoing large research programs including Research Centre of Excellence grant to the Cancer Science Institute valued at $ 172 million awarded in FY 08 over 7 years, three Translational Clinical research grants for research in Gastric Cancer, Ischemic Stroke & Eye diseases awarded at $25 million per grant in FY 2007 and 2008 over 5 years.
In addition, for FY 2009, a total of $76 million in research grants were received from major funding agencies including NMRC, BMRC, A*Star, NRF, MOE and sponsored funding committed to NUHS, approximately $43 million was to the Clinical Research projects and approximately $33 million was to the Basic Science project of our institution. In year 2009, a total of 1046 publications in peer reviewed journals were published. Out of this 1046 publications, 323 were the top tier publications, including several published in the Science, Nature, Lancet, Molecular Cell and New England Journal of Medicine.
Committed to excellence in Clinical Trials and Clinical Research in general, NUHS is re-shaping the campus to expand its building and infrastructural support for the conduct of translational and clinical research. A few key developments include the Centre for Translational Medicine (MD 6), MD 1, NUH Medical Centre and the remodelling of NUH Main Building, all of which will cater and support the development of Translational Clinical research from first quarter of 2012 and beyond. |
