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On 28 October 2025, the National Cohorts Office (NCO) hosted a networking event bringing together cohorts and their teams in Singapore. Also in attendance were members of the NCO’s Scientific Advisory Board – Professor Andrew Morris, Director of Health Data Research UK; Dr Joe McNamara, former Head of Cohort Strategy, UK Medical Research Council; and Professor Per Hall, Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet.

The event began with a networking lunch, followed by a keynote lecture from Professor Morris and a presentation by the Singapore Strategic Cohorts Consortium (SSCC). SSCC is a collaboration of four major population cohorts (Singapore Chinese Health Study (SCHS), Singapore Epidemiology of Eye Diseases (SEED), Singapore Longitudinal Ageing Studies/ Yishun Study (SLAS/YS) and SG100K) working to integrate data and expertise into a unified research resource of more than 160,000 participants.

In his talk, Professor Morris highlighted the opportunity to treat health data as national infrastructure capable of transforming healthcare, research, and productivity amid global pressures from ageing populations, rising healthcare demand, and diminishing workforce capacity. He underscored that advances in AI and medical science depend on large-scale, high-quality, responsibly governed data, and that countries with strong public health data systems such as the UK and Singapore have a significant advantage in driving future innovation. Professor Morris also described the UK’s investment in a trusted, secure, and interoperable data ecosystem through HDR UK, which fosters national and international collaborations across academia, healthcare, industry and charity while maintaining public trust through robust governance and transparency.

SSCC followed with a presentation on the consortium’s progress in establishing governance frameworks, harmonizing diverse datasets, developing a trusted research environment for secure data access, and launching demonstration projects that expand molecular, clinical, and imaging capabilities. Key achievements include building shared data dictionaries, onboarding imaging and omics data, standardizing clinical chemistry assays, enhancing genotyping through imputation and sequencing, and applying AI-driven analyses to DXA images. The consortium is actively promoting coordinated, multi-institutional collaboration and encourages other population cohorts interested in partnering or sharing knowledge to get in touch.

Catch the session via Youtube!

Many Singaporeans may be living with undiagnosed conditions like diabetes without even knowing it, and early detection can make a big difference.

With effective lifestyle changes and evidence-based treatments, these conditions can be managed, and their progression slowed or even prevented.

Hear from Prof Chia Kee Seng, Founding Dean of NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, as he highlights the importance of identifying at-risk individuals and supporting them, together with diagnosed patients with consistent care before complications develop.

Sex work in Singapore has shifted from brothels to online, private and freelance spaces, making it harder for existing public health measures built around regulated venues to reach many workers.

To address these gaps, public health efforts need to extend beyond brothels and provide support that reflects the workers’ real needs, including mental health, safer work guidance and broader sexual and reproductive health support.

Hear from Asst Prof Rayner Tan as he highlights how Singapore’s public health approach can evolve to meet the realities of today’s sex work landscape.

Photo credit: The Straits Times

Under new rules taking effect on 1 April 2026, insurers will no longer be allowed to offer riders that fully cover the government-mandated deductible. Patients will therefore shoulder part of their medical bills, even with a rider, a shift aimed at reducing overuse and keeping premiums sustainable.

Congratulations to Dr Mo Yin on receiving the L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award 2025!
This prestigious award recognises outstanding women researchers whose scientific contributions address some of the world’s most pressing challenges

From 12 to 14 November 2025, the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health (SSHSPH) welcomed representatives from the National Institute of Public Health (NIPH), Cambodia, for a series of engaging and productive dialogues. Led by the Director of NIPH His Excellency Professor Chhea Chhorvann, the visit marked a significant step towards strengthening the partnership and collaboration between NIPH and SSHSPH, fostering the MOU recently signed in April between our institutions.

Postgraduate programmes in public health
The delegation from NIPH engaged in insightful discussions with representatives from SSHSPH Education Office where Dr. Te Vannarath, Head of the School of Public Health (NIPH), shared about the postgraduate programmes offered at NIPH. Representatives from the two institutions shared insights and lessons learnt about designing postgraduate programmes and developing public health professionals; both institutions agreed to explore opportunities to collaboratively support PhD students.

Digital transformation for institutional management systems
After listening to Associate Professor Liow Chee Hsiang, Vice Dean (Education), share about institutional management systems at SSHSPH, the NIPH team shared their visions for digital transformation of their academic and administrative management systems to support research at the institutional level. Afterwards, the team met with Assistant Professor Swapnil Mishra, joint appointment at SSHSPH and Institute of Data Science, Department of Statistics and Data Science to explore research collaborations and capacity-building activities in data analytics and data science.

On 14 November, the NIPH team visited the National University Health System (NUHS) campus where the NUHS team led by Dr. Ling Zheng Jye, Chief Medical Informatics Officer, shared their experience in the digital transformation of the hospital management systems and health analytics.

The NIPH team also met with Associate Professor Danny Poo, Founding Director of the Centre for Health Informatics, NUS, to gather insights and explore possible collaboration in setting up postgraduate programme in health informatics at NIPH.

Research collaboration and capacity-building
Potential research collaborations were discussed in the meeting with Associate Professor Müller-Riemenschneider Falk, Vice Dean (Research), and Associate Professor Kavita Venkataraman, joint appointment at SSHSPH and NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine.

The NIPH team also met with Dr. Priya Balasubramaniam, Director – Strategy, External Collaborations and Growth to learn about the Leadership in Antibiotic Discovery and Development (LEAD) Programme – a peer-to-peer exchange fellowships on AMR stewardship and open science drug discovery.

The NIPH, through its School of Public Health, is committed to advancing education, research, and innovation to strengthen Cambodia’s public health system. We are excited to continue building strong partnership with NIPH and looking forward to transforming the ideas from this visit into reality!

We often celebrate Singapore for its vibrant food culture, yet many older adults continue to face hidden malnutrition behind closed doors. Beyond being a medical issue with serious consequences, malnutrition reflects deeper, interconnected challenges — financial pressures, social isolation, functional limitations and cultural habits that shape how seniors eat. These everyday realities often go unseen.

Hear from Dean, Prof Teo Yik Ying, as he explains why malnutrition among older adults is on the rise and why addressing it must become a core part of Singapore’s national health strategy.

Photo credit: The Straits Times

The WHO has warned of rising drug-resistant infections, and Singapore has updated its national action plan in response. Yet antimicrobial resistance (AMR) continues to grow worldwide, not because science has stalled, but because the commercial model for antibiotic development has collapsed. As pharmaceutical companies shift toward more profitable chronic disease drugs, the global pipeline for new antibiotics is shrinking.

This year’s theme — Applying Mathematical and Quantitative Psychology to Real-World Complex Problems — brings together researchers exploring the intersections of data, cognition, and human behaviour.

Submit your abstract by 26 November 2025 and join leading scholars, including Prof Roger Ratcliff from The Ohio State University and Prof Irini Moustaki from The London School of Economics and Political Science, for three days of insightful sharing in Singapore.

📅 23–25 February 2026 | 📍 Shaw Foundation Alumni House, NUS

👉 Submission and Registration: https://ampc2026.com/