Adjunct Associate Professor

 

LIM Poh Lian

Associate Professor Lim Poh Lian serves as Director of the High Level Isolation Unit at NCID, Head of the Travellers’ Health and Vaccination Clinic at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, and Senior Consultant in the Communicable Disease Division at the Ministry of Health.

Her main work is at the intersection of patient care and public health, combining infectious disease clinical acumen, shoe leather epidemiology and sound public health principles to prepare for and respond to outbreaks. Her experience and interests have ranged from HIV clinical trials and tropical medicine, to vaccine-preventable infections, deliberate events, and novel pathogens spread by travel.

Affiliation

  • NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health (Adjunct)
  • Head & Senior Consultant, Travellers’ Health & Vaccination Clinic, Tan Tock Seng Hospital (Primary)
  • Director, High Level Isolation Unit, National Centre for Infectious Diseases (Primary)
  • NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, Clinical Associate Professor
  • NTU Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Adjunct Associate Professor
  • Senior Consultant, Communicable Diseases Division, Ministry of Health

Research Areas

  • Travel and tropical medicine
  • Outbreak preparedness and response
  • Emerging infections
  • Vaccines
  • HIV clinical management
  • High consequence pathogens
  • Countermeasures for deliberate events

Teaching Areas

  • Emerging infections and outbreak control
  • Travel and tropical medicine
  • Vaccine implementation
  • Deliberate events involving biological agents

Academic/Professional Qualifications

  • BA in Biochemistry (Harvard)
  • MD (Columbia)
  • MPH in Tropical Medicine (Tulane)
  • ABIM (Internal Medicine), SAB accredition
  • ABIM (Infectious Diseases), SAB accreditation
  • SAB accreditation in public health
  • Fellow of the Academy of Medicine Singapore (2003-2020)
  • ASTMH Certificate in Travel and Tropical Medicine

Awards/Honours

  • Delta Omega, American honor society in public health (1999)
  • The Courage Star (2003)
  • The Commendation Medal, National Day Awards, Singapore (2003)
  • The Minister of Health Award (2018)
  • Nanyang Education Award (School), Nanyang Technological University (2019)
  • Healthcare Humanity Award with honourable mention (2020)
  • Tan Tock Seng Hospital Best Teacher Award (Senior) (2020)
  • NUS Medicine Special Recognition Award (2020)

Career History

  • Medical resident, Beth Israel Hospital, Boston, 1991-1994
  • Primary care internist, South Cove Comm Health Centre, Boston, 1995-1996
  • Infectious disease fellow, Tulane University, New Orleans, 1996-1999
  • Lecturer, University of Malaya Medical Centre, Kuala Lumpur, 1997
  • ID attending physician, Overlake Hospital & Evergreen Hospital, WA, 1999-2002
  • Consultant, Dept of Infectious Diseases, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, 2003-2007
  • Senior Consultant, Dept of Infectious Diseases, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, 2007-present

Administrative Leadership

  • Head, Outpatient Parenteral Antibiotic Clinic (OPAT), 2003-2006
  • Head, Travellers’ Health and Vaccination Clinic (THVC), 2006-present
  • Head, Department of Infectious Diseases, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, 2012-2016
  • Director, High Level Isolation Unit, National Centre for Infectious Diseases, 2017-present

Professional/Consulting Activities

Singapore

  • Senior Consultant, Ministry of Health Singapore (2007-present)
  • Chair, Chapter of ID Physicians, Academy of Medicine Singapore (2009-2011)
  • Chair, National Antimicrobial Resistance Control Committee (2009-2021)
  • Chair, ID Residency Advisory Committee (2012-2021)
  • Member, MOH Expert Committee on Immunization (ECI) (2007-present)
  • Member, SAB Research Committee Scholarship Administration Panel (2013-2015)
  • Member, National Verification Committee for Measles Elimination (2014-present)
  • Consultant, Health Sciences Authority Blood Advisory Group (2015-present)
  • Member, SAF Expert Committee on Immunization (2013-2016)
  • Member, MOH Taskforce to Enhance Detection and Response to ID Outbreaks (2015-2016)
  • Chair, MOH Expert Committee on Mosquito-borne Diseases in Transplant (2020)
  • Member, Ministry of Defence Specialist Advisory Board (SAB) on Infectious Diseases, (2020-2022)
  • Member, Expert Committee on COVID-19 Vaccination (EC19V) (2020-present)

International

  • Member, WHO Asia-Pacific Strategy on Emerging Infectious Diseases Technical Advisory Group (2007-2010)
  • Steering Committee Member, WHO Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) (2008-2018)
  • Member, Advisory Group on Reform of WHO Work in Outbreaks and Health Emergencies (2015-2016)
  • Member, UN Secretary General’s Global Health Crises Taskforce (2016-2017)
  • Member, WHO Mass Gatherings cell (2020-present)
  • Member, WHO SAGE Smallpox Vaccine working group (2022)
  • Chair, Independent Allocation of Vaccines Group, COVAX Facility (2022)
  • Chair, WHO Health Security Interface Technical Advisory Group (2019-2022)

Selected Publications

  • Lim PL, Kurup A, Gopalakrishna G, et al. Laboratory-acquired severe acute respiratory syndrome.  N Engl J Med 2004;350:1740-5
  • Hsu LY, Lee CC, Green JA, Ang B, Paton NI, Lee L, Villacian JS, Lim PL, Earnest A, Leo YS. Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in Singapore: Clinical features of index patient and initial contacts.  Emerg Infect Dis 2003;9:713-7
  • Lim PL, Barkham TMS, Ling LM, Dimatatac, Alfred T, Ang BS. Increasing incidence and risk factors for Clostridium difficile associated disease in Singapore.  Emerg Infect Dis 2008;14(9):1487-9
  • Lim PL, Oh HML, Ooi EE. Chikungunya in Singapore: Imported cases among travelers visiting friends and relatives.  J Travel Med 2009;16:289-91
  • Srasuebkul P, Lim PL, Lee MP, et al. Short-term clinical disease progression in HIV-1 infected patients taking combination antiretroviral therapy: Results from the TREAT Asia HIV Observational Database (TAHOD). Clin Infect Dis 2009;48:940-50
  • Lim PL, Zhou J, Ditangco R, et al. Failure to prescribe pneumocystic prophylaxis is associated with increased mortality, even in the cART era. J Intl AIDS Soc 2012;15:1
  • Lim PL, Han P, Chen LH et al. Expatriates ill after travel: Results from the GeoSentinel Surveillance Network. BMC Infect Dis 2012;12:386
  • Lim PL, Tan J, Yusoff Y et al. Rates and predictors for influenza vaccine prescriptions among HIV-infected clinic patients in Singapore.  Ann Acad Med Singapore2013;42(4):173-7
  • Lim PL. Travel and the globalization of emerging infections. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg 2014;108:309-310
  • Lim PL. MERS in Asia: Lessons gleaned from the South Korean outbreak. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg 2015;109(9):541-2
  • Lim PL, Han P, Esposito D, Freedman D. Dengue during travel in Singapore: Severe dengue is associated with longer residence in dengue-endemic regions. Ann Acad Med 2015;44(10);S388 SHBC abstracts
  • Sadarangani SP, Lim PL, Vasoo S. Infectious diseases and migrant worker health in Singapore: a receiving country’s perspective.  J Travel Med 2017;24(4)
  • Tan GSE, Chan M, Lim PL. Yellow fever – what it means for Singapore.  Ann Acad Med Singapore 2018;47(5)
  • Lim PL, Chavatte JM, Vasoo S, Yang J. Imported human babesiosis, Singapore 2018.  Emerg Inf Dis 2020;26(4)
  • McCloskey B, Zumla A, Lim PL, et al. A risk-based approach is best for decision-making on holding mass gathering events.  Lancet 2020;395(10232):1256-7
  • Tay JY, Lim PL, Marimuthu M, et al. De-isolating COVID-19 suspect cases: a continuing challenge.  Clin Infect Dis 2020

Media Coverage

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