In Singapore, program for physician-educators encourages faculty to lead institutional and departmental change

In October, the National University of Singapore Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine welcomed faculty from HMI to Malaysia for the second annual HMI-NUS Physician Educators Program, a five-day course based on the Harvard Macy Institute’s Program for Educators in the Health Professions.

The aim of the program was to enhance the professional development of physicians, allied health care personnel, and basic science teachers as educators of physicians and health care professionals. In particular, the leadership at the NUS medical school cited the need to develop faculty who will become change agents for medical education in their various fields.

The course participants included 12 faculty members from the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at NUS, 1 from the Faculty of Science at NUS, 10 from the restructured hospitals in Singapore, and 11 overseas participants from Malaysia, Thailand, and China.

The course was co-directed by HMI faculty Elizabeth Armstrong, PhD, director of the Harvard Macy Institute; and Tom Aretz, MD, vice president of global programs. They were assisted by four local facilitators: Goh Poh Sun, Mark DaCosta, Tan Chay Hoon, and Tay Sook Muay. The format and curriculum for the program were based upon models developed for the educators program held annually at Harvard Medical School and led by Dr. Armstrong.

This program content focused on five major themes: learning and teaching, curriculum design and process, educational leadership, educational research, and assessment principles and strategies. The program not only, as one participant said, “stimulated new thinking on teaching and curriculum assessment,” but also provided participants with the knowledge base and skills required to enhance their expertise in, both designing and conducting their own educational project and in taking a leadership role in the educational activities of their institutions.

The program resulted in the development of six action plans, all championed by course participants, to meet a range of key objectives, including revisions to specific curricula, the development of new curricula in ophthalmology and otolaryngology, and the integration of pre-clinical and clinical education.

One of the program organizers, Dr. Yap-Seng Chong, Assistant Professor in the NUS Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, said that the program was well received by the faculty who attended. “The conducive learning environment helped to forge a great sense of togetherness, bonding, and camaraderie among the participants, indirectly helping to create a network of physician educators and building a scholarship of learner-teachers bonded by their shared experiences.”

He added that the program could also align a group of “like-minded physician-educators who can be counted on to contribute to or initiate educational changes implemented by the Deanery. They form a critical mass of ground support.”

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