From Ideas to Impact: What History can Teach Us?

Medical Humanities Symposium
From Ideas to Impact: What History can Teach Us?

Date: 19 Sep 2025, Friday | Time: 1525 - 1655 | Track Type: Symposium | Venue: Whitespace, Level 2, Academia

By exploring the historical evolution of medicine in Singapore, this symposium will provide participants with perspectives on how historical insights can be harnessed to guide impactful innovation. We will be bridging the gap between past achievements and future aspirations by contextualizing innovation, offering suggestions on avoiding historical oversights and humanizing medical progress. Breakthroughs in modern medicine stand on the shoulders of past knowledge and experimentation. By examining historical milestones, we provide a contextual backdrop for understanding current research and innovation trajectories. History also offers invaluable lessons in the successes and failures of medical practice. Revisiting our Singapore can help leverage of past successes and avoid repeating mistakes. Furthermore, medicine is not only a scientific endeavour but also a profoundly human one. Historical narratives reveal the social, cultural, and ethical dimensions of medical advancement, reminding researchers and clinicians of the centrality of human values in healthcare.

TOPIC 1:
The Value of History to Medical Progress
Speaker: Assoc Prof Anantham Devanand

TOPIC 2:
How the Healthcare System Has Innovated and Evolved in
Speaker: Prof Lee Chien Earn

TOPIC 3:
Surgical Innovation through the Ages at SGH: Learning from the Master Clinicians
Speaker: Prof London Lucien Ooi Peng Jin

TOPIC 4:
First Hand Account of Medicine and Research at SGH from Gordan Arthur Ransome to the Present
Speaker: Prof Woo Keng Thye