Prof Fatimah Lateef
Senior Consultant Emergency Physician, Director of Quality and Patient Safety Department of Emergency Medicine, Singapore General Hospital; Programme Director, Academic Clinical Development and Leadership Programmes, Duke-NUS Medical School; Co-Director, SingHealth Duke-NUS Institute of Medical Simulation (SIMS) Professor, Duke NUS Graduate Medical School, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore and Lee Kong Chian Medical School, Nanyang Technological University; Core Faculty, SingHealth Emergency Medicine Residency Programme; Faculty, Duke NUS Global Health Institute
Prof Fatimah Lateef is the first Emergency Physician-Politician/ Member of Parliament in Singapore. She served as an elected Member of Parliament in Singapore from 2006 till 2020, participating in three General Elections. She is Senior Consultant, Director of Training and Education as well as Director of Patient Safety and Quality at the Department of Emergency Medicine, Singapore General Hospital. She is also Adjunct Professor at Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, Yong Loo Lin Medical School, National University of Singapore and Lee Kong Chian Medical School at NTU. She teaches part-time at the School of Health Sciences, Nanyang Polytechnic and Singapore Institute of Technology. She is also the Director of Patient Safety and Quality in Emergency Medicine at the Singhealth Duke NUS Academic Medical Centre. Her area of sub-specialisation include Prehospital Care Medicine, Cardiovascular and Neurovascular Emergencies. She is passionate about Patient Safety, Medical Education, Leadership training, International Humanitarian Medicine and Simulation/ Technology-driven Education. She has worked in various countries including both the UK and USA and served as an International Consultant to MaxHealthcare, India. Fatimah is the Director of the SingHealth Duke NUS Institute of Medical Simulation, where she is also an active educator and facilitator. With the first three years of formation, she brought the centre through into the global arena with the achievement of the Society for Simulation in Healthcare (SSH) accreditation. Her strong servant leadership style as well as transformative model for negotiating change and uplifting and enhancing lives, people and organisations, ensures the values she holds close to her heart are executed. Passionate about patient safety and quality, she is also principal faculty teaching the Master In Patient Safety Programme, focusing on Educational Approaches and Simulation.
A strong advocate of life long learning and empowerment, she has presented more than 600 abstracts at international conferences and published over 300 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals. She is on several editorial board and a reviewer for some 30 peer-reviewed journals She leads various leadership groups, grooming youths and doctors to excel, which is also befitting her role as a core faculty, nurturing residents in Emergency Medicine. Fatimah is an active volunteer in the area of International Humanitarian Medicine and Acute Disaster Response, where she has led teams to countries such as Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, Myammar, Africa, Indonesia, China for a variety of causes and assistance. For her work in the various fields, she has been conferred awards such as Young Investigator’s Award (1998), Excellent Scientific Publication Award (2001), Best Teacher Award (2002), Laerdal Visiting Lectureship Award (2003), Courage Award (2004), National Healthcare Humanity Award (2005), The Outstanding Young Person of Singapore (2006), Good Mentor Award, Singhealth (2005), The Outstanding Young Person of the World Award (2006), Woman for Peace Award, Sokka Gakkai International, (2007), Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, NUS (2008), Singapore Medical Journal Recognition Award for Review with Distinction, (2007-2016), Critical Talent Retention Award, SingHealth and The Academy of Medicine, Gold Reviewer Award( 2011), Excellent Educator Award 2015, National Day Long Service Award, 2017, Academic Medicine Award for her work in global emergency medicine (2019), amongst others. More recently, she has received The Golden Apple Award (2021), Inspiring Mentor Award (2021), The Golden Quill Award (2021), Best Education Research Award (2022), Academic Leader of the Year 2023 by The World Academic Council in Emergency Medicine and The Covid 19 National Day Award (2023), Outstanding Faculty RISE Award for EM Residency Teaching (2024), Singapore General Hospital Top 2% Most Cited Scientist in 2024 (by Elservier-Stanford University) and Master Academic Clinician 2025 ( Singhealth- Duke NUS) .Fatimah continues to work full time, with a fulfilling career in Emergency Medicine, balancing clinical work with research and education, as well as her local, international and community responsibilities. For recreation, Fatimah enjoys mountain climbing, cooking, reading and she has completed 15 full marathons. The principle of her life continue to drive her even after over 30 years in her career:
“If you have it, give it and share it. If you want it, strive hard to achieve it. Never ever take anything for granted. I live as though each day is my last and I learn as though I am going to live forever”
Prof Fatimah Lateef's Plenary Session:
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