Conferment of Faculty Professorship in Supportive and Palliative Care

Associate Professor Grace Yang is an emerging leader in supportive and palliative care research. At this early point in her career, she has already established a track record of more than 65 peer-reviewed publications including first authored papers in top journals in the field (Supportive Care in Cancer, Palliative Medicine, Journal of Pain and Symptom Management) and grant success (> S$2.4 million). She was the first palliative care physician in Singapore to be awarded the NMRC Transition Award (TA) in 2019 and the NMRC HPHSR Clinician Scientist Award (HCSA) in 2023. She was also awarded the European Association of Palliative Care (EAPC) Early Researcher Award in 2024.

Leadership roles

Her leadership roles have spanned clinical care, research and policy at national and institutional levels. She is Deputy Head (2025 to present) and Research Director (2020 to present), SingHealth Duke-NUS Supportive and Palliative Care Centre (SDSPCC); Chair, National Palliative Care Quality Improvement (NatPallQI) steering committee (2025 to present), Co-chair, Singapore Hospice Council Service Development Workgroup (2023-2024); Member, National Strategy for Palliative Care Implementation Committee (2023-2025); Member, National Advisory Committee on Cancer (NACC) Supportive and Palliative Care Sub-Committee (2019-2022).

As the inaugural chairperson of the National Palliative Care Minimum Data Set (MDS) committee from 2017 to 2022, she led the setting up and establishment of the National Palliative Care MDS to provide national patient-level data about hospice and specialist palliative care services for evaluating quality of care, informing service planning, and influencing health policy. These findings were used by the National Strategy for Palliative Care workgroup to formulate a refreshed National Strategy for Palliative Care that was announced in July 2023.

Building palliative care research capacity

Associate Professor Yang has built a research team that has successfully conducted randomized controlled trials of palliative care complex interventions using mixed methods approaches. Although palliative care research is growing, it remains largely centred in high-income countries, with scanty research output from many low- and middle-income countries. As part of the Lien Centre for Palliative Care (LCPC) team leading multi-country studies, she has mentored clinician researchers in India, Myanmar, Philippines and Indonesia. She will continue to build on ongoing work as part of the LCPC mission to develop research capacity in low- and middle-income countries in the Asia-Pacific region, to generate the evidence required to grow palliative care services in these countries.

Current and future research

Associate Professor Yang’s work addresses key questions in palliative care research, elucidating when and how palliative care should be delivered to improve patient outcomes. This will provide empirical guidance to improve palliative care in Singapore and internationally. Building on her portfolio of health services research, she will also build her expertise in implementation science, which will accelerate the translation of new knowledge into clinical practice in the real world. Her research will drive health policy and service delivery changes to improve outcomes for patients with serious illnesses and their family caregivers.

The Faculty Professorship in Supportive and Palliative Care will provide a transformative boost to Associate Professor Yang’s ongoing growth as an international leader in academic palliative care, as she continues to increase both the scope and impact of her research in Singapore, Asia Pacific and beyond.