ABSTRACT
The proposed Graduate Medical School at the Outram Campus will open in 2007. The main value of this medical school is the transformation of the medical institutions in the campus and SingHealth into Academic Medical Centres. Such centres will train and host quality physicians and physician-scientists. It will help push the development of translational research, complementing the country’s investment in Biopolis. It will also underpin Singapore’s push into regional medical tourism and its development as an educational hub in the biomedical sciences.
The government recently announced its intention to set up a second medical school at the Outram Campus. Duke University has been invited to help in the planning and organisation of this new Faculty of Medicine. It was chosen because it is one of the top biomedical universities in the United States of America, has an excellent track record in research, and has, together with the University of North Carolina and North Carolina State University, provided the intellectual environment that created the research triangle in that state. This research triangle has transformed the economy of that state, from one based on agriculture (tobacco at that) to one based on knowledge. The curriculum of the faculty of medicine of Duke University is innovative and unique. In its 4-year programme, the whole of the third year is devoted to research. A result of this is that many of its graduates continue to engage in medical research or are leaders in academic medicine. It is hoped that the cooperation with Duke University will help the new biomedical university to transform Singapore medicine.
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