Date: 27 October, Friday | Time: 4:15pm - 5:45pm | Venue: LT4, Gaia, Nanyang Technological University
Speaker: Asst Prof Lim Ni Eng, Asst Prof Rachel Chen, Dr Yu Chou Chuen, Ms Sherry Toh
Moderator: Dr Warren Fong, Ms Kathleen Cheung Ka Yan
Programme Description
While obligation for medical professionals to show empathy in healthcare is undisputed, its constant emphasis suggests practical issues in practicing or conveying empathy in clinical settings. Why is being empathetic possibly difficult in medical settings? What are the tangible dimensions of displaying empathy, and are they received as "empathetic" by patients? And what do patients actually mean by "wanting empathy"? This panel gathers academics of medical communication, clinical researcher and patient advocate, to highlight the different perspectives of this challenging issue. In conclusion, the panel extends an invitation to the audience, encouraging them to engage in critical reflection regarding the practical implementation and significance of empathy within the healthcare system.
Speaker Bios
  Asst Prof Lim Ni Eng
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Assistant Professor Lim Ni Eng holds the position of Assistant Professor at the School of Humanities, Nanyang Technological University, and part of the Medical Humanities Research Cluster in the school. He received his doctoral degree in Applied Linguistics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The scope of his disciplinary training includes interactional linguistics, conversation analysis, and multimodal discourse analysis. Assistant Professor Ni Eng’s research interest in medical communication looks at how doctors and patients makes interactional moves to achieve different agendas in particularized medical setting settings. His current project revolves around the interactional practices during Advance Care Planning (ACP) consultations in the hospital, where patients, medical personnel and care-givers have to engage in negotiation on end-of-life decisions for the terminal patient.
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  Asst Prof Rachel Chen
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Dr. Rachel S. Y. Chen is an Assistant Professor in the School of Humanities at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, where she conducts interdisciplinary research and teaching in the areas of disability, embodied interaction, and design-based research. Prior to joining NTU, Rachel was formally trained in Linguistics and received her Ph.D. in Special Education (with a designated emphasis on New Media) from UC Berkeley and San Francisco State University, studying the communicative practices of non-speaking autistic individuals. Her work bridges diverse but complementary methodological approaches (Cognitive Science, Learning Sciences, Linguistics, EMCA, Human-Computer Interaction) with clinical/educational practices. With a focus on neurodiversity and disability, she integrates video- and micro-analyses of everyday embodied interaction with the ethical design of new therapeutic tools for human expression and communication. She aspires to persistently forge connections between research and practical application by anchoring her efforts within the disability community, alongside educators and allied health professionals. |
  Dr Yu Chou Chuen
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Chou Chuen is a research fellow at the Geriatric Education and Research Institute. At present, his research focus is on biopsychosocial approaches to healthcare and programme evaluation. He has been involved with various studies related to the COVID-19 pandemic. His research work on attitudes of older adults toward vaccination was awarded gold in the Singapore Biomedical Congress 2022 and a study on mental health of older adults during the pandemic was featured in the Straits Times. Chou Chuen also has research interests in advance care planning and advancing end-of-life care. He holds a PhD in Psychology and is an associate faculty at the Singapore University of Social Sciences. Publications on empathy Yu, C. C., Tan, L., Le, M. K., Tang, B., Liaw, S. Y., Tierney, T., ... & Low, J. A. (2022). The development of empathy in the healthcare setting: a qualitative approach. BMC Medical Education, 22(1), 1-13. Tan, L., Le, M. K., Yu, C. C., Liaw, S. Y., Tierney, T., Ho, Y. Y., Lim, E., Lim, D., Ng, R., Ngeow, C., & Low, J. (2021). Defining clinical empathy: a grounded theory approach from the perspective of healthcare workers and patients in a multicultural setting. BMJ open, 11(9), e045224. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-045224 |
  Ms Sherry Toh
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Ms Sherry "Elisa" Toh is a journalist and disability advocate diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy type II. Apart from having bylines primarily in international gaming news publications like NME Gaming, she shares her life with SMA as a patient columnist on SMA News Today, including her fight for access to SMA-targeting treatments in Singapore. In 2023, her essay "Virtual Progress: A Disabled Journalist's Thoughts on the Video Games Industry" was published in Singapore's first printed disability studies anthology, "Not Without Us: Perspective on Disabilities and Inclusion in Singapore." |
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