Post submitted by: Leah Zullig, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine (GIM)
I recently had the opportunity to attend the biannual Duke-NUS Medical School and Duke University Bridging Symposium on March 27-28. The focus of the program was on “Population health and precision medicine: different paths to a shared goal.” The meeting was held in Singapore, which gave attendees from Duke a unique opportunity to not only hear informative talks and engage with fellow Duke and Singaporean health services researchers, but also to see Singapore and develop a better understanding of its healthcare structure. There was a great turnout at the event with 152 participants, including 7 from Duke.
Other Duke GIM presenters included Drs. David Matchar, Ryanne Wu, and Lesley Curtis. I had the opportunity to moderate a lively panel discussion entitled, "Harnessing the power of data: illustrations.” During the panel session we learned about an innovative registry called SingCLOUD (presented by Yeo Khung Keong), a population segmentation tool (presented by Dr. Matchar), and using large datasets to measure physical resilience after stress (presented by Dr. Heather Whitson of Duke Geriatrics).
It was an action-packed two day conference, followed by the opportunity to connect individually with members of the Duke-NUS health services and clinical research community. Our hope is that a result of the meeting, new collaborations will form. In fact, in partnership with new contacts from the symposium, I’ve already developed two new letters of intent. I left the symposium energized and amazed at the potential for collaborations with our colleagues in Singapore.