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Tragus pressure-guided removal of airway devices for safe emergence from sedation: A randomised controlled trial

Dear Editor,Emergence from anaesthesia and deep sedation is the transition from unconsciousness to the return of awareness and airway reflexes. The chief patterns of...

Teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic: Perspectives of medical students in Singapore

Dear Editor,The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in many changes to medical education, including the site and mode of teaching, conducting of...

Response to letters arising from publication of the Academy of Medicine, Singapore clinical guideline on the use of sedation by non-anaesthesiologists during gastrointestinal endoscopy in the hospital setting

Dear Editor,The Academy of Medicine, Singapore (AMS) guideline on the use of sedation by non-anaesthesiologists during gastrointestinal endoscopy in the hospital setting and an...

Sedation in gastrointestinal endoscopy in Singapore

Dear Editor,I refer to the editorial “Ensuring safe sedation during gastroendoscopy”1 and the original article “Academy of Medicine, Singapore clinical guideline on the use...

Non-anaesthesiologists administering propofol in the Singapore context

Dear Editor,Propofol is a potent intravenous sedative-hypnotic agent. Its popularity for sedation has increased in the last 3 decades because of its smooth, rapid...

Sedation by non-anaesthesiologists in gastrointestinal endoscopy

Dear Editor,We read with interest the paper by Ang et al.1 on Singapore guidelines in the use of sedation by non-anaesthesiologists during gastrointestinal endoscopy...

Treating acutely ill patients at home: Data from Singapore

Inpatient hospitalisation is the conventional strategy to care for acutely ill patients. However, demand for hospital beds and clinical manpower is escalating as populations...

Acute hypercapnic respiratory failure in thyroid storm and the role of plasma exchange

Dear Editor,Thyroid storm is a life-threatening condition due to excessive release of thyroid hormone. Cardiovascular, gastrointestinal and neurological manifestations have been described.1 Acute respiratory...

Pericardial Injury Following Severe Sepsis from Faecal Peritonitis—A Case Report on the Use of Continuous Cardiac Output Monitoring

The intermittent manual bolus thermodilution method is the most common means of determining cardiac output in critically ill patients. Although widely used, there are...

An Overview of Anaesthetic Issues in Phaeochromocytoma

New developments in technology, monitoring and pharmacology over the last decade have improved our understanding of phaeochromocytoma and its management. This review summarises the...

Is it Feasible to Use Magnesium Sulphate as a Hypotensive Agent in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery?

Although deliberate hypotension during surgery may potentially cause organ ischaemia, in particular of the myocardium and cerebrum, it is widely used as an adjuvant...

Academic Medicine in Singapore

Academic medicine is currently grappling with the problem of whether the triple-threat academician is a species threatened with extinction in the 21st century, given...

Postanaesthetic Shivering—A Comparison of Thiopentone and Propofol

The incidence of shivering following general anaesthesia varies from 5% to 65%. Postanaesthetic shivering may increase tissue oxygen demand by as much as 500%...

Sudden Profound Hypoxaemia in the Intensive Care Unit—A Case Report

Significant arterial hypoxaemia is defined as a partial pressure of oxygen (PaO2) that is less than 60 mmHg or a percentage of oxyhaemoglobin (%...

Planning and Design of a Surgical Intensive Care Unit in a New Regional Hospital

The Changi General Hospital is a new regional hospital in the eastern part of Singapore catering to a population of about 750 000. Planning...

Management Training in Critical Care Medicine

Critical care medicine as a specialty has grown rapidly, both clinically and academically, over the past 25 years. In the USA, certification of competence...

A Case of Pseudohyperkalaemia and Thrombocytosis

Hyperkalaemia is a common biochemical derangement in the intensive care unit reflecting a diversity of systemic perturbations such as acute renal failure, rhabdomyolysis, extracellular...

Combined High-frequency Ventilation (CHFV) in the Treatment of Acute Lung Injury—A Case Report

The role of ventilatory support in acute lung injury is supportive, whilst the damage to alveolar-capillary membranes resolves and alveolar stability is restored. The...

Foregoing Life Support in Medically Futile Patients

The origins of withholding medical support are found in ancient times. More than two millennia ago, Hippocrates (460 to 361 BC) stated that the...

Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy: Continuous Blood Purification in the Intensive Care Unit

The last decade has seen a progressive change in the style of management of severe acute renal failure (acute renal failure which requires the...

Contributions of Respiratory Care Practitioners to Intensive Care: A Review

The intensive care unit (ICU) is a complex environment in which multidisciplinary expertise has been shown to enhance clinical outcomes. For example, the availability...

Nitric Oxide in Septic Shock: Directions for Future Therapy?

In 1980, Furchgott and Zawadzki demonstrated that the relaxation of isolated arteries to acetylcholine required the presence of endothelial cells. This response was mediated...

Ventilatory Strategies for Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) was first described by Ashbaugh et al in 1967. The original authors detailed the presence of tachypnoea, hypoxaemia, decreased...

The Oxygen Delivery Debate—A Review

Multisystem organ failure occurs in a large proportion of critically ill patients and is a major cause of death in this group of patients....

Severity Scoring Systems in the Modern Intensive Care Unit

The first major general severity adjustment system, the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) system, was published in 1981. Since then, APACHE, the...

Controlled Observations in Critical Care Medicine: The Therapeutic Trial

Central to the combined diagnostic and therapeutic approach to the critically ill subject is the evaluation of both the basal physiologic status and its...

Critical Care—The Worldwide Perspective

Although special areas for postoperative patients existed 50 years ago, the modern specialty of Critical Care began during the polio epidemic of the 1950s....

Caudal Morphine in Paediatric Patients: A Comparison of Two Different Doses in Children after Major Urogenital Surgery

The use of caudal preservative-free morphine for postoperative analgesia in children has gained popularity since it was first described by Jensen. Several studies have...

A Retrospective Study of Infants with Severe Persistent Pulmonary Hypertension (PPHN) Managed without Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO)

Persistent pulmonary hypertension (PPHN) is an important cause of neonatal mortality amongst infants who are of term or post-term gestation. The most severely ill...

Five Paediatric Case Reports of the Use of Adenosine in Supraventricular Tachycardia

Adenosine has been shown to be effective in terminating supraventricular tachycardia in adults and children. However, the use of adenosine has not been previously...

Use of Central Venous Lines in Paediatrics—A Local Experience

Peripheral access by venous cut down, once popular in the 1950s and 1960s, has almost become obsolete with the introduction of the Seldinger technique...

Malaria Requiring Intensive Care

Malaria is an important and common infectious parasitic disease globally. It is associated with significant morbidity and mortality, especially in endemic areas.This article is...

Patients Admitted to an Intensive Care Unit for Poisoning

The study of poisoning has been relatively neglected in Singapore. A check through the Infogate database of the National University of Singapore Library revealed...

A Retrospective Study of Near-drowning Victims Admitted to the Intensive Care Unit

Drowning victims suffocate from submersion. This may lead to immediate death or, if they survive, brain damage if significant cerebral hypoxia is present.This article...

Diabetes Insipidus in Neurosurgical Patients

Diabetes insipidus (DI) is a syndrome characterised by the excretion of abnormally large volumes of dilute urine. It occurs uncommonly in neurosurgical patients, but...

Outcome of Patients with Traumatic Brain Injury Managed on a Standardised Head Injury Protocol

Trauma is the fifth commonest cause of death in Singapore. In 1996, trauma contributed to 5.4% of mortality.This article is available only as a...

Predictors of Long-term Outcome in Severe Head Injury

Injuries form the fifth commonest cause of death locally. They accounted for 27 out of 100 000 deaths in 1993.This article is available only...

Survival after Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation in the General Wards—The Results of a Dedicated “Code” Team

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is widely practised for cardiopulmonary arrests with variable success. The initial intention was to defibrillate patients with ventricular fibrillation after acute...

APACHE II and SAPS II are Poorly Calibrated in a Hong Kong Intensive Care Unit

The Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) and the new Simplified Acute Physiology Score (SAPS II) scoring systems are widely used...

Audit of 2431 Admissions to the Surgical Intensive Care Unit, Singapore General Hospital

The Singapore General Hospital is a 1700-bedded tertiary hospital with subspecialty intensive care units (ICUs), i.e. Surgical ICU, Cardiothoracic ICU, Neurosurgical ICU, Medical ICU,...

Impact on Quality of Patient Care and Procedure Use in the Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU) Following Reorganisation

Critical care is costly as it is labour intensive and involves expensive life support technology. In the United States, the intensive care units (ICUs)...

Intensivists for the Intensive Care Unit—Do They Make a Difference?

Does Critical Care Medicine exist and what defines its area of practice? Different countries have embarked on their own journeys of discovery, and have...

Ergotism and Vascular Insufficiency: A Case Report and Review of Literature

Toxicity from ergot and its derivative is well known. Great epidemics occurred during the middle ages due to consumption of rye contaminated with the...

Epidural Analgesia in Obstetrics

Most obstetric anaesthetists have their favourite epidural concoction for use in labour, This paper surveys the variation in techniques of drug delivery and types...

Plasma Vitamins A, C and E in the General Population of Singapore, 1993 to 1995

The current disease pattern in Singapore (an island state of 3.3 million people composed of 76% Chinese, 14% Malays, 7% Asian Indians and 3%...

An In vitro Evaluation of Epidural Catheters: Tensile Strength and Resistance to Kinking

In the current era of increasing economic and medicolegal pressures, it is imperative that equipment-related limitations and complications be reduced to a minimum. Epidural...

Use of EMLA Cream or Alfentanil for Analgesia during Ophthalmic Nerve Blocks

Cataract surgery is performed mainly as day-case surgery, with the majority performed under regional anaesthesia. Retrobulbar block, combined with facial nerve block, provides good...

The Use of Magnesium Sulphate in the Intensive Care Management of an Asian Patient with Tetanus

A 29-year old Thai construction worker, previously well, was admitted to our Orthopaedic Department for sudden onset of lower back pain. Physical examination showed...

Re-expansion Pulmonary Oedema Following One-lung Ventilation —A Case Report

A 15-year-old female patient weighing 40 kg with asymptomatic but severe scoliosis was admitted for correction of a skeletal deformity via a thoracoscopic anterior...

Intravital Microscopy for the Study of the Microcirculation in Various Disease States

It is more than 150 years ago when the first detailed description of intravital microscopy was given by Waller, demonstrating in the frog tongue...

Changing the Institutional Practice of Prolonged Mechanical Ventilation after Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery to Early Extubation

In the past, cardiac patients in this institution were ventilated postoperatively for a prolonged period, frequently overnight. Since 1997 some of our cardiac anaesthetists...

Controversies in Anaesthesia—Designer Drugs

The discovery of new drugs in anaesthesia previously relied completely on chance. Chemical compounds produced by pharmaceutical companies were screened by a variety of...

Radial Nerve Injury after Intravenous Cannulation at the Wrist—A Case Report

A 44-year-old male, right-handed and ASA 1 bus driver presented for elective mastoidectomy under general anaesthesia. Preoperative venous cannulation with a 20G cannula (Angiocath™)...

Dissemination of Respiratory Secretions During Tracheal Tube Suctioning in an Intensive Care Unit

Tracheal tube suctioning is frequently performed in critically ill patients. This procedure often results in dissemination of droplets from the patient’s respiratory tract with...

Perioperative Wheezing—A Report of Three Cases

Perioperative “wheezing” can be due to upper or lower airway obstruction. The signs and sounds of upper airway obstruction are typically worse during inspiration,...

The Use of the Laryngeal Mask Airway in Post-Tonsillectomy Haemorrhage—A Case Report

A 53-year-old man with a history of hypertension and asymptomatic Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome was admitted to the hospital for an elective uvulopalatopharyngoplasty, tonsillectomy and bilateral...

A Case Report of the Use of Magnesium Sulphate during Anaesthesia in a Patient who had Adrenalectomy for Phaeochromocytoma

Phaeochromocytomas are catecholamine-secreting tumours of the chromaffin cells of the body derived from neural crest tissue. They may secrete both adrenaline and noradrenaline in...

Prophylactic Esmolol Infusion for the Control of Cardiovascular Responses to Extubation after Intracranial Surgery

Both intubation and extubation are processes associated with blood pressure and heart rate flux. While many studies have been carried out on the changes...

Transurethral Surgery and the Adductor Spasm

Bladder tumours frequently arise from the posterolateral wall of the bladder1 over the course of the obturator nerve. It is during transurethral resection of...

Subcutaneous Emphysema and Pneumomediastinum after Endotracheal Anaesthesia

Pneumomediastinum is a well-recognised clinical entity. It may present either intraoperatively or postoperatively from a number of possible causes.This article is available only as...

Total Intravenous Anaesthesia Using 3-in-1 Mixture of Propofol, Alfentanil and Mivacurium

Total intravenous anaesthesia (TIVA) implies achieving the 3 components of anaesthesia (hypnosis, analgesia and muscle relaxation) by the administration of anaesthetics via the intravenous...

The Predictive Value of Intraoperative ST-segment Monitoring as a Marker of Myocardial Injury

Patients with ischaemic heart disease have a high incidence of perioperative ischaemia resulting in an increased risk of cardiac events in the post-surgical period.1...

Fibre-optic Aided Bougie (FAB) for Simulated Difficult Tracheal Intubation

Difficult intubation remains a key problem1 and the value of a flexible introducer (gum elastic or wire) as a first approach is well recognised...

A Case Report on the Treatment of Intractable Anal Pain from Metastatic Carcinoma of the Cervix

Unremitting pain remained a primary therapeutic challenge in cancer patients. Both opioids and non-opioids are often the main stay of therapy for many.This article...

Intravenous Regional Anaesthesia Using Lignocaine and Tramadol

Intravenous regional anaesthesia (IVRA) has a reported success rate of between 94% and 98% for upper limb surgery. Limitations to its use include the...

Catheter-related Infection: Diagnosis, Prevention and Treatment

Intravascular catheters are indispensable for patient care. Despite advances in catheter technology and patient care, catheter infection remains a significant clinical problem.This article is...

Book Review

The above is a textbook of medicine written by Singapore doctors and published in Singapore. It is difficult not to be over-enthusiastic about it...

Book Review

This handbook serves an important function for Intensive Care Units in Singapore. It is a collective effort of 35 specialists in 5 different institutions...

Intra-abdominal Hypertension—Implications for the Intensive Care Physician

Although the detrimental effects of raised intra-abdominal pressure have been known for over 100 years, it is only in the last two decades that...

Anaemia in the Critically Ill—The Optimal Haematocrit

The function of haemoglobin (Hb) is to transport oxygen to the tissues. Approximately 97% of oxygen is transported via Hb, while 3% is transported...

Quality of Life in Long-Term Survivors of Intensive Care

Intensive care has undergone rapid technological advancement in recent years enabling complex treatment of patients of advanced age and/or with advanced chronic diseases underlying...

Limitation of Life Support in the Critically Ill: The Hong Kong Perspective

Technological advances over the last 30 years have had an enormous impact on the way in which medicine is delivered today. This is particularly...

Simulation-based Training at the University of Pittsburgh

In the domain of medical education of both the general public and healthcare professionals, the next decade will present both challenges and opportunities centred...

Retinol Palmitate Counteracts Oxidative Injury During Experimental Septic Shock

Gram-negative bacteria induced septic shock, a condition with high mortality, is frequently seen in critical care medicine. The wall of gram-negative bacteria consists of...

Pulse Dye Densitometry: A Novel Bedside Monitor of Circulating Blood Volume

The monitoring of circulating blood volume (CBV) is important in the care and management of critically ill patients. Progressive blood volume depletion, if unmonitored...

Case Report: Catheter-Related Epidural Abscess

Epidural abscess complicating epidural catheterisation was first reported in 1974. Two recent studies indicated a local infection incidence of epidural catheters of 4.3% to...

Gemella Empyema Cured without Antibiotics: A Case Report

Gemella are gram-positive anaerobic bacteria that rarely produce serious human infections. We describe a case of thoracic empyema that occurred in an elderly Chinese...

The Clinician Meets the Computer—Uneasy Bedfellows

Information technology has become a cornerstone of civilization as we know it. In its broadest definition, information technology encompasses all forms of technology required...

Leveraging on Information Technology to Enhance Patient Care: A Doctor’s Perspective of Implementation in a Singapore Academic Hospital

Information technology (IT) has become truly pervasive in everyday life; however, in the field of medicine, we have yet to fully harness its full...

Internal Medicine

It has taken a long time to plan for this November issue in Internal Medicine. The topic is so wide and often neglected as...

General Medicine—Revisited, Rejuvenated, Revitalised and Reemphasised

“The irresistible swing towards medical specialisation has brought advantages for patients but arguably this has gone too far.” It is time to review the...

A Case of Pulmonary Haemorrhage Following Jet Ventilation for Vocal Cord Surgery

Laryngospasm occurring at extubation is not an uncommon complication seen with use of endotracheal tubes and laryngeal mask airway. We report a case of...

Subdural Block—From a Spinal? A Case Report

There have been multiple reports of accidental subdural blocks published in the last 20 years. Majority of these have been the result of an...

Problems Related to Epidural Analgesia for Postoperative Pain Control

Epidural analgesia has been shown to provide excellent pain relief following thoracotomy, abdominal and other surgery. Studies have shown improvement in specific variables with...

A Countrywide Approach to the Control of Non-communicable Diseases—The Singapore Experience

In the area of health, the last two decades has seen a decline or eradication of deadly diseases, such as smallpox and polio, the...

Causes for the Evolution of Case Management and the Development of a Working Model in an Acute Care Hospital in Singapore

In 1999, significant changes to the healthcare funding structure were introduced to public sector hospitals in Singapore. This was the advent of casemix-based funding...

Evidence-based Medicine: The Key to Guidelines, Disease and Care Management Programmes

Health care in America and the rest of the industrialised world continues to reinvent itself at an ever-accelerating rate. The societal pressures for high...

National Disease Management Plans for Key Chronic Non-communicable Diseases in Singapore

Like most other newly industrialised economies, Singapore has undergone a rapid epidemiological transition over the last 50 years. Chronic, non-communicable diseases have replaced infectious...

Chronic Disease Management: Challenges for Clinicians and the Way Forward

The healthcare, financial and social burden of chronic diseases, such as diabetes mellitus, coronary heart disease, asthma, chronic obstructive airway disease, hypertension, chronic depression,...

Measuring Health-related Quality of Life in Singapore: Normal Values for the English and Chinese SF-36 Health Survey

Advances in diagnosis and therapy in the second half of the 20th century have lead to impressive improvements in survival for patients with many...

Clinical Update on Managing the Obstructed Airway

Maintaining a patent upper airway is the first principle in resuscitation and acute care. This is usually carried out by anaesthesiologists, emergency medicine physicians...

Anaesthetic Considerations for Lung Volume Reduction Surgery—A Case Report

Only until a few years ago, the only surgical alternative for patients with severe emphysema was lung transplantation. However, with transplantation, there are problems...

Should Ethical Issues in Biotechnology Research be Decided by Physicians-Scientists or by Lawyers?

As with clinical practice, the practice of biomedical research is a moral activity. We have to think about what we should do, not just...

Remifentanil in the Management of Laparoscopic Resection of Phaeochromocytoma – Case Reports

The perioperative management of surgery for laparoscopic resection of phaeochromocytoma presents a significant challenge. Many different anaesthetic techniques and drugs have been used to...

A Prospective Audit of Critical Incidents in Anaesthesia in a University Teaching Hospital

Despite the highest standards of training, practice and equipment, morbidity and mortality due to anaesthesia still occur. These risks are difficult to quantify, and...

Critically Ill Elderly Who Require Mechanical Ventilation: The Effects of Age on Survival Outcomes and Resource Utilisation in the Medical Intensive Care Unit of a General Hospital

Increasing life expectancy and ageing of the “post-war baby boomer” generation have led to the rapidly ageing demographic of many Asian countries. Singapore’s elderly...

Patterns and predictors of sound levels in hospital rooms

Dear Editor,     Excessive sound levels in the hospital can impair the work performance of healthcare professionals and affect patient well-being.1 Previous studies have also...

Academy of Medicine, Singapore clinical guideline on the use of sedation by non-anaesthesiologists during gastrointestinal endoscopy in the hospital setting

The practice of gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy over the last 3 decades has seen both a rise in volume of routine procedures, and an increase...

Ensuring safe sedation during gastroendoscopy

Gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy started in Singapore in 1968 with diagnostic endoscopic gastric examination, using flexible fibre-optics GI endoscopy. Fibre-optic flexible sigmoidoscopy and colonoscopy were...

1st College of Physicians Lecture: The Role of Internal Medicine as a Specialty in the Era of Subspecialisation

It humbles me to accept the invitation to give this lecture, the First College of Physicians Lecture, titled “The Role of Internal Medicine as...

Standards and Revalidation or Recertification

In my Gordon Arthur Ransome Oration and other papers, I have described the nature and development of patient-centred professionalism, the key features of which...

Continuing Professional Development – a Surrogate for Recertification?

The Hong Kong Academy of Medicine is a statutory body set up in 1993 with the objectives of fostering the development of postgraduate medical...

Teaching and Learning of Professionalism in Medical Schools

There is now worldwide consensus that the elements of medical professionalism need to be enhanced and explicitly taught in medical schools. Medical schools in...

The Challenge of Teaching Professionalism

For the past 25 years, professionalisation, industrialisation, large-scale infusions of technology into the healthcare system and consumerism, to name a few factors, have definitely...

2004 Runme Shaw Memorial Lecture: Professionalism – A Concept in Need of Nurturing

It is a great honour to be invited to deliver the Runme Shaw Memorial Lecture. I am grateful to the Runme Shaw Foundation for...

17th Gordon Arthur Ransome Oration: Patient-centred Professionalism

When sickness strikes we all need doctors. People everywhere know that the quality of medical care can affect the outcome and possible consequences of...

Refining Clinical Practice: Transforming Science Research into the Art of Medicine

I am humbled by the invitation given to me by Changi General Hospital to deliver this lecture at your 5th Annual Scientific Meeting with...

Marijuana in Pregnancy

Marijuana has been used for thousands of years for both medical and recreational purposes. Because the pharmacological actions of marijuana are complex and include...

Extended-spectrum Beta-lactamases in Clinical Isolates of Escherichia coli and Klebsiella spp. in a Singapore Hospital: Clinical Spectrum

Extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBLs) in gram-negative bacillary pathogens are a growing and important problem in hospital practice and it is tied to extensive use of...

Routine Microbiological Screening in Septic Patients in a Cardiac Surgical Intensive Care Unit

Compared to in-hospital patients, patients treated in an intensive care unit (ICU) have the highest risk of contracting an infection. The risk correlates well...

Medical Education in Asia: Is it a Time for Optimism?

Asia, the largest continent, is also an immensely diverse region with countries that vary in their socio-economic status, degree of urbanisation and health and...

Issues and Priorities of Medical Education Research in Asia

Medical schools traditionally rest on the “three-legged stool” of research, education and service. Hence, medical teachers are sometimes referred to as “triple-threat academicians”.This article...

Genital Herpes in a Sexually-transmitted Infection Clinic in Singapore: A 1-year Retrospective Study

Genital herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection is a commonly notified sexually transmitted infection (STI). Genital herpes can be caused by both herpes simplex virus...

Transmission of Tuberculosis from Patient to Healthcare Workers in the Anaesthesia Context

Tuberculosis poses a very real problem to healthcare workers (HCWs). In Singapore, the prevalence of tuberculosis in the general population remains high at 44...

Professionalism: Looking For Your Blind Spots

In 1996 a major breakthrough was reported in the medical literature. A 5-week ectopic pregnancy was re-implanted into the uterus via the cervix, and...

Methodological Aspects of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has a long history but its efficacy is not as well-documented as one would hope. Proof of efficacy has to...

A Practical Way of Research in Chinese Medicine

Chinese medicine individualises its treatment plan and practice and refutes any general law. Therefore, Chinese medicine practitioners do not have the tradition of research.This...

Complementary and Alternative Medicine, and Traditional Chinese Medicine: Time for Critical Engagement

Practice outside of mainstream or conventional medicine has always been an important part of public healthcare in some countries, particularly in the developing world....

An Unexpected Left Hydrothorax after Left Internal Jugular Venous Catheterisation for Total Parental Nutrition and Antibiotics

Percutaneous indwelling central venous catheters are commonly used for a variety of medical and surgical indications. There are various complications associated with the insertion...

Student Academic Committees: An Approach to Obtain Students’ Feedback

The shift of medical curricula from a traditional subject based to an integrated module-based system can be seen in many medical schools worldwide. The...

Curricular Trends in Malaysian Medical Schools: Innovations Within

Medical educators continue to evaluate and introduce innovations into their curriculum with the objective of achieving appropriate outcomes for their graduates so that they...

A Problem-Based Learning Pathway for Medical Students: Improving the Process Through Action Research

Problem-based learning (PBL) is a student-centred, self-directed, integrated and contextual mode of learning. It has been widely perceived by many to confer advantages in...

A Simple Instrument for the Assessment of Student Performance in Problem-based Learning Tutorials

Assessment can be done in a variety of ways, for many purposes, and for different populations. It can occur at the classroom level, programme...

An Online Evaluation of Problem-based Learning (PBL) in Chung Shan Medical University, Taiwan – A Pilot Study

The goal of problem-based learning (PBL) is to motivate students to develop self-learning skills in a small group. PBL embraces principles of good learning...

The Impact of Experiential Learning on NUS Medical Students: Our Experience With Task Trainers and Human-patient Simulation

The realisation that students have different cognitive and learning styles has had major implications on medical curriculum design efforts. If the student’s learning style...

Evidence-based Medicine in Clinical Curriculum

Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is “the conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of the best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients.” Considering...

Leadership and Professionalism Curriculum in the Gross Anatomy Course

Healthcare delivery systems worldwide are currently undergoing significant changes to create resilient learning organisations that are able to adapt with ever-increasing speed to shifting...

Constructing Multiple Choice Questions as a Method for Learning

Students in general and medical students in particular are often described as “strategic learners”, but in reality many become superficial learners out of necessity...

Computer-based Versus Pen-and-paper Testing: Students’ Perception

Computer-based testing (CBT) has gained popularity as a testing modality, with large-scale professional examinations such as the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) adopting...

Curriculum TIPS For All of Us

Medical education is a lifelong learning process. Just as we remind our students and ourselves that the practice of medicine is a lifelong process...

Community-associated Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus: Overview and Local Situation

The emergence and spread of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolates from the community that are distinct from their archetypal healthcare-associated counterparts (HA-MRSA) marked a...

Translational Research – A Multidisciplinary Approach

Translational research aims to convert laboratory discoveries into therapeutic gains for patients – in oncology, drug development is a prime example. This multifaceted process...

A Complex, Contagious, Evolutionary Habit

Yawning is often noted in medical seminars and conferences – be they surgical, orthopaedic, gastroenterological, endocrinological or neurological. Yet, this condition receives little coverage...

Amendment of the Human Organ Transplant Act

Kidney transplants have been carried out in Singapore for more than 35 years, with the first cadaveric kidney transplant operation performed on 8 July...

Interesting In- and Outpatient Attendances at Hogwarts Infirmary and St Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies

With the return of “You Know Who” (YKW) and the rise of Death Eaters, injuries amongst both muggle and wizarding folk (MF and WF)...

The Doctor’s Multi-instrument Tool of the Future?

It is just another day in 2020, except that the eyes of the medical world are eagerly awaiting the latest invention to be revealed:...

Relationship Between Item Difficulty and Discrimination Indices in True/False-Type Multiple Choice Questions of a Para-clinical Multidisciplinary Paper

Multiple-choice questions (MCQs) are used more and more in departmental examinations or as comprehensive examinations at the end of an academic session. They may...

Assessing Professionalism in Early Medical Education: Experience with Peer Evaluation and Self-evaluation in the Gross Anatomy Course

The professional role of physicians implies a commitment to upholding social order by providing strong leadership, good moral judgement, and the ethical practice of...

Towards a Global Educational Matrix for Tomorrow’s Health Systems

Society supports medical schools expecting them to produce physicians who can improve both the health of the population as well as the health system...

Harnessing the IT Factor in Medical Education

In this digital age, we are constantly inundated with breathtaking images worthy of an Ansel Adams photograph or a Zhang Yimou film. Is it...

A Systems Approach to Teach Core Topics across Graduate Medical Education Programmes

Core curricula including Ethics, Medico-legal issues, Socioeconomics, and Quality Improvement (QI) are relevant and significant for graduate medical education programmes, regardless of specialty. A...

World Federation for Medical Education Policy on International Recognition of Medical Schools’ Programme

There is an increasing need for international quality assurance of medical education. However, there are no present mechanisms for international recognition of medical educational...

Quality Management of Medical Education at the Carl Gustav Carus Faculty of Medicine, University of Technology Dresden, Germany

In Germany, medical education is an undergraduate programme for which the students applying at the “Zentralstelle für die Vergabe von Studienplätzen” (ZVS); the final...

Supporting Learners who are Studying or Training Using a Second Language: Preventing Problems and Maximising Potential

Travel and immigration are vibrant aspects of the international medical and educational field. Patients are increasingly mobile and finding healthcare professionals in a foreign...

Development of a Tool to Evaluate Health Science Students’ Experiences of an Interprofessional Education (IPE) Programme

A shortage of healthcare professionals and resources in rural areas is well documented. These workforce shortages necessitate new models of healthcare in rural areas...

Step-2 Thai Medical Licensing Examination Result: A Follow-up Study

The Center for Evaluating and Accrediting Medical Competency of the Thai Medical Council has established the regulation that Thai medical graduates matriculated as of...

Does Team Learning Motivate Students’ Engagement in an Evidence-based Medicine Course?

Team-based learning (TBL) is a well-defined instructional strategy that has generated considerable interest within the medical education community because of its potential to promote...

A Survey of Medical Students’ Perceptions of the Quality of their Medical Education upon Graduation

Founded in 1934, Tehran University of Medical Sciences School of Medicine (TUMS-SoM) is the oldest modern medical school in Iran. It has the most...

The Learning of 7th Year Medical Students at Internal Medical – Evaluation by Logbooks

In 1945, Taihoku (Taipei) Imperial University was renamed the National Taiwan University and the Japanese teaching system was replaced with a system implemented by...

Use of Knowledge-sharing Web-based Portal in Gross and Microscopic Anatomy

The extensive use of and the rate at which medical technology is becoming an integral force in medicine has impacted on the way in...

Assessment of Psychometric Properties of a Modified PHEEM Questionnaire

In Sri Lanka, after a 5-year medical undergraduate curriculum, graduates from the medical faculties undergo a one year mandatory internship or housemanship, 6 months...

Medical Education in a Flat World

In 2005 Thomas Friedman published the international best-seller The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century. He asserted that as the...

Objective Structured Clinical Evaluation Should Not Only Be a Test of Clinical Skill

The Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) was originally a test (or summative assessment) specifically of clinical skills, using standardised patients (SP), anatomical models and...

5th College of Physicians Lecture – A Physician’s Odyssey: Recollections and Reflections

Allow me to thank you Mr President and your Council for asking me to deliver the 5th College of Physicians Lecture. Your President has...

Standard Setting in Student Assessment: Is a Defensible Method Yet to Come?

To validate any “adjective”, be it for living or non-living, a criteria or standard is needed. Globalisation, mobility of doctors and the rising number...

Innovative “Case-Based Integrated Teaching” in an Undergraduate Medical Curriculum: Development and Teachers’ and Students’ Responses

In Asia, the challenges facing medical education are similar across different countries. The learning process is still problematic with large classes, and most of...

History of Psychiatric Education in Singapore

While medical education in Singapore has a hundred-year history, the teaching of psychiatry became salient only in the last quarter of the century. In...

Assessment of Medical Graduates Competencies

Medical professional proficiency comprises a set of skills, knowledge, and attitudes necessary to efficiently accomplish the practice of medicine. The major aim of undergraduate...

Evidence-based Medicine (EBM) for Undergraduate Medical Students

The practice of evidence-based medicine (EBM), which integrates individual clinical expertise with the best available evidence from systematic research, demands a set of skills....

Transudates in Malignancy: Still a Role for Pleural Fluid

According to Light’s criteria, an exudate is defined by at least one of the following: a total protein pleural fluid to serum ratio greater...

Sleep Disorders: Sleepless in Singapore

Sleep disorders are common afflictions in both the paediatric and adult populations, increasingly recognised as major public health concerns. Recently, the Institute of Medicine...

The Teaching of Anatomy: The First Hundred Years (1905-2005)

When the Straits and Federated Malay States Government Medical School opened its doors on 3 July 1905 in what was to be the historical...

Self-directed Learning in Health Professions Education

More than 600,000 new citations were published in MEDLINE in 2005; this raised the total number of indexed citations to more than 14 million...

Sir Gordon Arthur Ransome (1910-1978) – His Teaching Style and His Legacy

Sir Gordon Arthur Ransome was born in Salop, England, in 1910.1 He came to Singapore in 1938, where he taught and practised medicine for...

Translating the Family Medicine Vision into Educational Programmes in Singapore

The core of the Family Medicine (FM) vision is patient-centred care, requiring specific education and vocational training. Modern day FM began its existence as...

Outcome of Severe Head Injured Patients Admitted to Intensive Care During Weekday Shifts Compared to Nights and Weekends

Recognising that severe head injury is a major health problem with significant mortality and morbidity, numerous epidemiological and outcome studies have been conducted in...

Erysipelothrix rhuseopathiae Septicaemia with Prolonged Hypotension: A Case Report

Erysipelothrix sp. is a gram-positive, non-spore forming bacterium that was first isolated by Robert Koch. It has the unusual ability to infect a large...

The Hospitalist Movement – A Complex Adaptive Response to The Hospitalist Movement – A Complex Adaptive Response to Fragmentation of Care in Hospitals

Healthcare systems are complex adaptive systems. They are capable of self organisation through interacting agents that adapt to changes to the internal and external...

Medication Use in the Transition from Hospital to Home

Hospital discharge can be a complex and challenging time for physicians and patients alike. Patients are being discharged sooner, often in the process of...

Family Medicine Education in Singapore: A Long-standing Collaboration between Specialists and Family Physicians

In the US, Canada and Australia, the postgraduate training of family physicians (FPs) involves the attachment of family medicine (FM) trainees to specialist departments,...

Bridging the Gap between Primary and Specialist Care: Formidable Challenges Ahead

The strong guiding hand and deep pockets of the state have brought about the growth of hospitals and national specialist centres while leaving the...

Clinical Skills in Final-year Medical Students: The Relationship between Self-reported Confidence and Direct Observation by Faculty or Residents

In clinical medical education, instructors train students in their medical knowledge and clinical skills. Medical educators also aspire to develop students’ self-confidence in medical...

Reply from Author: Intrathecal Analgesia for Cancer Pain: Externalised Intrathecal Catheters

We thank Dr Nicholas Chua et al for their interest in our review article. We agree and appreciate the experience and comments by the...

Intrathecal Analgesia for Cancer Pain: Externalised Intrathecal Catheters

We thank the authors for a comprehensive review on the role of interventional pain therapies used in cancer pain as well as a informative...

Evaluation of Intensive Care Unit-acquired Urinary Tract Infections in Singapore

Urinary tract infection (UTI) is one of the most common types of nosocomial infections encountered in the inpatient settings including intensive care unit (ICU)....

Medical Professionalism in the Internet Age

Medical professionalism encompasses the conduct and practices of physicians, both as individuals and as a collective organisation. Professionalism enhances the trust and confidence of...

Developing the “NUS Tummy Dummy”, A Low-Cost Simulator to Teach Medical Students to Perform the Abdominal Examination

Simulators may be used to provide adequate exposure to learning experiences that allow clinical skills to develop, that is, allow medical students and trainees...

A Subacute Model of Geriatric Care for Frail Older Persons: The Tan Tock Seng Hospital Experience

The number of persons aged over 65 will increase from 8.4% in 2005 to 18.7% in 2030, which translates to absolute numbers of 296,900...

Discrepancies in End-of-life Decisions Between Elderly Patients and Their Named Surrogates

In the context of Singapore, advanced medical decision-making is an unfamiliar concept to the majority of the local elderly population.As such, in situations where...

Recommendations for standards of neuromuscular monitoring during anaesthesia

Dear Editor,We presented recommendations for neuromuscular monitoring during anaesthesia, which were approved by the Council of the College of Anaesthesiologists, Singapore in September 2019...

Evidence-Based Guidelines on the Use of Opioids in Chronic Non-Cancer Pain—A Consensus Statement by the Pain Association of Singapore Task Force

Studies show that the incidence of chronic pain is approximately 18% in Australia and developed countries in Europe. In Asia, data from Hong Kong...

The Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Chronic Pain Patients in Singapore: A Single-Centre Study

Chronic pain is a prevalent disease that is often diffi cult to manage. According to a World Health Organisation survey, the worldwide prevalence of...

Management Plan to Reduce Risks in Perioperative Care of Patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnoea Averts the Need for Presurgical Polysomnography

A significant proportion of patients with underlying obstructive sleepapnoea (OSA) remain undiagnosed when they present for surgery. Epidemiologic data have placed the prevalence in the...

Outcomes of second-tier rapid response activations in a tertiary referral hospital: A prospective observational study

Despite its widespread adoption, rapid response systems (RRS) and rapid response teams (RRT) vary significantly in composition and set-up.1-3 While implementation of RRSs appear...

Is Cost-Effective Healthcare Compatible with Publicly Financed Academic Medical Centres?

Nearly all legislation involves a weighing of public needs as against private desires; and likewise a weighing of relative social values.—Louis D BrandeisAs a...

Cognitive Aspect of Diagnostic Errors

It was an unusually busy ward round. The newly promoted registrar was keen to review the patients handed over to him. But there were...

Mentorship in Academic Medicine: A Catalyst of Talents

The field of medicine is complex. Its interwoven structure of clinical practice, medical education and biomedical research, coupled with intricacies of the health system,...

Academic Medicine Education Institute (AM∙EI): Transforming the Educational Culture of Health Professionals

In 2010, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School (Duke-NUS) and Singapore Healthcare Services (SingHealth) launched an initiative to improve the lives of patients by combining their...

Diagnosing Bacteraemia Early in Older Adults

Sepsis is a prevalent and important cause of morbidity and mortality in the general population. Approximately 750,000 patients in the United States alone develop...

“Are Medical Students’ Views of an Ideal Physician Eroding? A Study on Perceived Qualities of a “Role Model” Doctor Before and After Housemanship and between Two Cohorts Five Years Apart “

Role modeling has been reported as an increasingly prominent teaching need and strategy in the field of medical education. This aspect of training helps...

Factors and experiences associated with unscheduled 30-day hospital readmission: A mixed method study

Readmission leads to a greater demand for healthcare services, especially hospital beds, and contributes to the rising healthcare costs.1,2 With estimated one-third of the...

Potentially avoidable readmissions: Understanding drivers and technology-enabled solutions

Hospital admissions places high resource demands on the health system, and is a major cost-driver in Singapore and globally.1-3 Admissions have and will continue...

A survey of Singapore anaesthesiologists for practice and prevention of peri-operative hypothermia in adult surgical patients

Core temperature is the temperature of blood and internal organs; influenced by biorhythm, metabolism, activity and hormones. It is regulated within a narrow range,...

How to Feed the Critically Ill—A Review

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Controversies in Sepsis Management—What is the Way Forward?

Sepsis is a common and life-threatening medical condition which has high incidence and mortality rates. Health care professionals are increasingly familiar with this syndrome,...

Obesity in COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an ongoing global pandemic infection by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It is established that increasing...