NUS medicine’s new degree to address capacity gaps in pandemic preparedness

Singapore wants to position itself as a global leader in public health and pandemic preparedness. 

As a part of this, the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (NUS Medicine) launched two new initiatives to ramp up efforts around international collaborations and capacity building in the space of outbreak response and management. 

Launched on February 10, the initiatives are the Centre for Infectious Disease Emergency Response (CIDER), and the Master of Science in Infectious Disease Emergencies (MSc IDE). 

Speaking at a media briefing, the Centre Director, Professor Dale Fisher, said that the new degree will address the need for more systematic training programmes in the space.  

He also shared about the capacity building work that his team at NUS Medicine had previously conducted in the Pacific Islands and the Africa region. 

The Centre and the new degree will formalise the international collaborations and networks, as well as training programmes to translate current knowledge into practice. 

“By offering educational opportunities, practical training, and operational support, CIDER aims to enhance public health systems, particularly in low-income countries, through scholarships and financial aid for professionals from these regions,” said NUS Medicine’s Dean, Prof Chong Yap Seng, in an official statement. 

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Singapore’s global positioning 

Prof Fisher said that the new degree will target international recruitment of health leaders, highlighting interest from Southeast Asia, Middle East and Africa for the course. 

He added that while Singapore’s experience with the Covid-19 pandemic will inevitably be covered in the course, it would be a two-way learning exchange between regional health leaders and the faculty. 

The Centre’s expertise would also be used to help other countries on request through government-to-government (G2G) collaboration, he added. 

Reflecting on lessons learnt from the Covid-19 pandemic, Minister of Health, Ong Ye Kung, at the launch event of the Centre pointed to the need for Singapore to “plug into the international collaborative effort to prepare for the next pandemic.” 

These include better global surveillance or working to develop the next vaccine as quickly as possible. 

Last December, the Centre met up with the ambassador and delegates from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Uzbekistan and Qatar, to discuss opportunities to strengthen pandemic preparedness, including highlighting the new degree to these countries. 

Led by public health practitioners and researchers in Singapore, US, UK and Australia, the degree will cover subjects beyond epidemiology science to include ethics, technology and communications. 

A population health approach 

Given the complexity of outbreaks, a single expert team focusing on the clinical aspects would have been insufficient, said the Centreer’s Deputy Director, Dr Louisa Sun, at the same briefing. 

She underlined the need to train and develop the next-generation leaders who understand the entire process involving multiple interconnected elements. 

These include not only science but also logistics, public analysis, surveillance, and the impact on non-public health sectors such as the economy and broader public policy. 

“A lot of people don’t realise that you can actually dissect a response [to an emergency outbreak],” said Prof Fisher. 

The knowledge that students pick up around surveillance and supply chain, as well as leadership and coordination skills, can be applied in the healthcare setting prior to an outbreak, and this can contribute to how well the outbreak is being managed later when it happens.  

Minister Ong emphasised on the role of leadership in pandemic preparedness. Beyond understanding science, public health leaders need to be able to consult with the right experts, translate scientific facts into policy measures and explain to the people. 

Programme details 

Given its focus on an international faculty, the programme format contains a mix of in-person teaching and mentor supervision in the student’s respective healthcare settings. 

The programme format follows a three-weeks' period of in-person teaching at NUS, followed by fourteen weeks of applying the knowledge in the healthcare setting with an in-country mentor assigned to the student, and then two weeks back in NUS to share the learnings. 

The degree targets early- to mid-career professionals who have work experience in public health, clinical research, occupational and environmental health or other related fields. It will offer both full-time and part-time options. 

Registration for the degree has opened since last November, and will close this April 30. The first cohort will begin classes this July.