Commentary
Singapore’s experience in managing the COVID-19 pandemic: Key lessons from the ground
In the early days of the pandemic when information on COVID-19 infection was lacking, all COVID-19 positive patients were admitted into acute hospitals for...
Letter to the Editor
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...
Commentary
Experience with a Nine-step Policy Dealing with Requests for Medically Inappropriate Interventions for Cancer
Although great strides have been made in treating cancers, a significant number of patients still reach the point at which no curative treatment is...
Others
9th Chapter of Surgeons’ Lecture: The Orthopaedic Surgeon: Historical Perspective, Ethical Considerations and the Future
The legacy of caring and humanitarianism has been the mission of the medical profession since the founding of Singapore by Sir Stamford Raffles in...
Others
Design of Phase I and II Clinical Trials in Oncology and Ethical Issues Involved
Drug development is costly and time-consuming in terms of economic, patient and research resources. An integrated effort involving academia, industry, and regulatory authorities is...
Editorial
Evaluating Drugs from Cradle to Grave—Evolving Systems for a Complex Activity
Are medicines dangerous chemicals or life enhancing agents? The answer is ‘Both of those things, often at the same time, and worse in the...
Original Article
Six-Year Follow-Up of Untreated T1 Carcinoma of Prostate
It is well known that T1 carcinoma of the prostate has varying biologic behaviour. Attempts to identify those at higher risk of progression have...
Original Article
The Practice of Foregoing Life Support in the Critically Ill “Old Old”: A Singapore Perspective
Studies on the foregoing of life support (FLS) in North America, Europe and Australia have shown diversity in terms of the incidence, decision-making process...
Commentary
Hospital Ethics Committees: Will America’s Model Work in Asia?
In the 1960s, some hospitals in the US set up special committees to review decisions regarding abortions, renal dialysis and human experimentation. As many...
Editorial
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...
Editorial
The Role of Influenza Vaccine in Healthcare Workers in the Era of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
The new coronavirus responsible for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) found its first victims in healthcare workers with attack rates of more than 50%...
Original Article
Post-SARS Psychological Morbidity and Stigma Among General Practitioners and Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioners in Singapore
Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is the first severe and readily transmissible new disease to emerge in the 21st century (WHO). The countries most...
Commentary
SARS Plague: Duty of Care or Medical Heroism?
SARS has been described as a Chinese plague because it emerged from the colourful markets of wild animals and the exotic kitchens of Guangdong,...
Commentary
SARS: How to Manage Future Outbreaks?
Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is caused by a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV), which crossed from wild animals at live markets to man in mid-November...
Review Article
SARS in Singapore – Key Lessons from an Epidemic
The 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak represented the most severe communicable disease challenge to the public health system and the government and...
Original Article
Clinical and Laboratory Findings of SARS in Singapore
An outbreak of atypical pneumonia was recognised in Singapore soon after the release of a global alert by the World Health Organization (WHO) on...
Others
False Positive F-18 Fluorodeoxyglucose Combined PET/CT Scans from Suture Granuloma and Chronic Inflammation: Report of Two Cases and Review of Literature
Postoperative surveillance for recurrence after curative colorectal cancer surgery has been enhanced with the use of F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) combined positron emission tomography (PET)/computed...
Others
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...
Review Article
Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus – A Review From a Singapore Perspective
The first isolates of high-level vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) were reported from the United Kingdom in the late 1980s. Since then rates of VRE infection...
Review Article
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus Control at the National University Hospital, Singapore: A Historical Perspective
The National University Hospital (NUH) was established in 1985 as the first restructured hospital and medical centre in Singapore. At its official opening in...
Review Article
Infectious Respiratory Illnesses and their Impact on Healthcare Workers: A Review
With the recent outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and its exceptionally high transmission rate in healthcare settings, healthcare workers (HCWs) and administrators...
Commentary
Risk Communications: In Search of a Pandemic
The first decade of the new millennium has seen a string of disasters worldwide – earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, typhoons and acts of terrorism –...
Review Article
Avian Influenza and Pandemic Influenza Preparedness in Hong Kong
In 1997, Hong Kong became reputed by identifying the first instance of human infection with avian influenza H5N1. A total of 18 cases occurred...
Review Article
A Global Perspective on Avian Influenza
The world is confronted by many important public health challenges, some of which constitute potentially devastating global threats. Prime among these is the threat...
Review Article
Twentieth Century Influenza Pandemics in Singapore
Tropical countries such as Singapore, although without well-defined influenza seasons, are also affected by influenza epidemics and pandemics. Twenty per cent of Singapore’s population...
Original Article
Screening for Vancomycin-resistant Enterococci Using Stools Sent for Clostridium difficile Cytotoxin Assay is Effective: Results of a Survey of 300 Patients in a Large Singapore Teaching Hospital
Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) have emerged as a major cause of nosocomial infections worldwide over the past 2 decades. In an effort to prevent the...
Commentary
Pharmacologic Treatment of SARS: Current Knowledge and Recommendations
Acute respiratory failure, which occurred in 20% to 25% of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) patients and necessitated ICU admission, was the primary cause...
Original Article
High Coverage of Influenza Vaccination Among Healthcare Workers Can Be Achieved During Heightened Awareness of Impending Threat
Experts have warned that Asia may be the next influenza pandemic epicentre.1 In order to reduce the risks of genetic shifts in the avian...
Commentary
The Challenges of “Continuing Medical Education” in a Pandemic Era
Although pandemics of influenza have occurred (albeit rarely, i.e. once every few decades) for more than 3 centuries, recent outbreaks of H1N1 and H5N1...
Original Article
Trends in Importation of Communicable Diseases into Singapore
Singapore is a city-state in Southeast Asia, with a total population in 2007 of 4,839,400, of which 3,642,700 (75.3%) are Singaporean residents. The remaining...
Original Article
A Cross-Sectional Study on Reference Ranges of Normal Oral Temperatures Among Students in Singapore
Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), an infection caused by the SARS Coronavirus (SARS-CoV), was imported into Singapore in late February 2003 by a local...
Original Article
Influenza B Outbreak among Influenza-vaccinated Welfare Home Residents in Singapore
Influenza has a major impact on the health of residents of long-term residential care facilities (LTCF). Residents of LTCFs are especially vulnerable to influenza...
Original Article
Pandemic (H1N1) 2009: Clinical and Laboratory Findings of the First Fifty Cases in Singapore
Just over a year ago, the swine-origin influenza A (H1N1) virus emerged in Veracruz, Mexico, and rapidly alarmed public health and influenza experts by...
Review Article
Maternal and Fetal Best Interests in Day-to-Day Obstetrics
When we discuss maternal and fetal best interests in an ethical context, we have to deliberate on the morality of healthcare, including the morality...
Review Article
An Approach to the Ethical Evaluation of Innovative Surgical Procedures
Innovative surgery is perhaps best defined as “a novel procedure, a significant modification of a standard technique, a new application of or a new...
Review Article
Hospital Policy on Medical Futility — Does it Help in Conflict Resolution and Ensuring Good End-of-Life Care?
The concept of medical futility has been present since antiquity, and traditionally marked the shift in the primary goal of care to providing physical...
Letter to the Editor
Health professions education in pandemics and epidemics: A proposed framework for educators
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted healthcare systems and health professions education (HPE). There are few frameworks to help educators manage HPE before, during and...
Commentary
ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction in post-COVID-19 patients: A case series
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been associated with thromboembolic phenomenon in the early phase of disease. Growing evidence suggests a hypercoagulable state as well...
Original Article
Characteristics and Outcomes of COVID-19 Patients with Respiratory Failure Admitted to a “Pandemic Ready” Intensive Care Unit – Lessons from Singapore
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Review Article
COVID-19 and Singapore: From Early Response to Circuit Breaker
The COVID-19 pandemic first broke out in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, where a cluster of pneumonia cases was reported and the novel coronavirus...
Original Article
Comparative Analysis of Symptomatic and Asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Children
Singapore confirmed its first case of COVID-19 on 23 January 2020 in a Chinese national from Wuhan, and its first paediatric case on February...
Original Article
Paediatric emergency department attendances during COVID-19 and SARS in Singapore
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 11 March 2020, with over 110 million cumulative cases...