BY TAN WEI HENG JERRY
Kicking off the first industrial visit of the school year, 10 CN Yang Scholars visited Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School located near Singapore General Hospital to learn more about its unique MD, MD-pHD and pHD curriculum.
What sets Duke-NUS apart from other medical schools is its central “Clinician-First, Clinician-Plus” vision. They believe that graduates are first competent clinicians, and beyond that, build on their other capabilities to become more than just simple clinicians, but clinician-scientists, leaders and innovators. Therefore, Duke-NUS welcomes students from different disciplines and academic backgrounds as they believe that they provide a different perspective and expertise to the study of Medicine. There are graduates with majors in Engineering, Business and even Law!
Fortunately, this aligns with the multi-disciplinary nature of the CN Yang programme which equips scholars with the skills and knowledge from multiple fields. Scholars also had the opportunity to ask key questions during an informative Q and A session with past NTU alumni who are now on the prestigious MD-pHD programme. The seniors encouraged them to engage in more diverse fields of research and explore their interests in those areas to gain greater perspectives in the process of scientific inquiry.
Scholars also had an exclusive peek into the different laboratories in Duke-NUS where despite the cluttered outlook of the benches, the scientists there are engaging in cutting-edge research at the forefront of science. It is not uncommon to see students and scientists working together hand-in-hand and engaging in intense discussions over their research work. It was indeed an eye-opening experience for us to experience the research culture of laboratories beyond NTU.
