Health Professions Education

27 Jun 2024

Aims of the program

The Health Professions Education Program has two board aims: (1) To raise awareness of the medical humanities among staff and patients; and (2) To be an enabler for the delivery of medical education. There are some aspects of medical education that are naturally a good fit for the medical humanities. These domains include the teaching of communication skills, empathy, patient-centered care, professional identity formation and interprofessional teamwork. However, the humanities can be expanded to other areas as well because the humanities can be used as method for delivering even scientific content. By engaging students at an emotional as well as a cognitive level, the arts can help lessons resonate and improve the efficiency of learning.

The medical humanities are already integrated into the Duke-NUS medical school curriculum. In Year 1 and 2, this involves ethics and professionalism training. In Year 4, there is communication training in in the medicine and surgery clerkships. In addition, students have exposure during the palliative care attachment.

Leadership and expertise

The Health Professions Program is led by Adj Assoc Prof Raveen Shahdadpuri and Clin Asst Prof Ong Eng Koon.

Adj Assoc Prof Raveen Shahdadpuri is currently a Senior Consultant  in the General Paediatrics Service at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Singapore.  Adj Assoc Prof Raveen Shahdadpuri is also a very passionate Clinician-Educator and has held numerous roles in both undergraduate and postgraduate medical education. He is currently ADIO for the KKH Campus for the SingHealth Residency after having served more than 12 years as Program Director of the SingHealth Paediatric Medicine Residency Program. He is also a Faculty member for all of the 3 medical schools in Singapore. He currently is Clinical Assistant Professor at Duke-NUS Medical School (where he serves as Assistant Dean of the MD Programme), as well as Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS). He is also an Adjunct Associate Professor at Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University (NTU). 

Clin Asst Prof Ong Eng Koon is a specialist consultant in palliative medicine. As a clinical-educator, Clin Asst Prof Ong Eng Koon teaches the topics of Professionalism, Ethics, Communications and Humanities at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. He is also Director, Office of Medical Humanities, Singhealth Medicine Academic Clinical Programme.