Advancing Global Health for More Equitable Health Outcomes and Health Security for All
Date: Wednesday, 07 February 2024
Time: 3:30pm – 5:00pm (Registration opens at 3pm)
Venue:
Tahir Foundation Building (MD1), Seminar Room 1, Level 8, NUS, 12 Science Drive 2, S117549
Session chair:
Dr Anders Nordström
Advisor, Advocate, Activist and former Swedish Ambassador for Global Health
Advancing Global Health
Dr Anders Nordström is the former Swedish Ambassador for Global Health. Medical doctor by background from the Karolinska Institute. Today advisor associated with the Karolinska Institute and the Stockholm School of Economics as well as principal senior fellow at the UN University International Institute for Global Health in Malaysia.
He is currently a member of the Alliance for Health Systems Research’s board, the SUN-Lancet PRIME Commission, the International Vaccine Institute Global Advisory Group of Experts, and the Virchow Foundation for Global Health Council. Recently he headed the Secretariat for the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response (2020-21).
He served as Acting Director-General for WHO (May 2006 – January 2007) and as Assistant Director General for General Management (2003-2006), Assistant Director General for Health Systems and Services (2007) and Head of the WHO Country Office in Sierra Leone (2015-17).
As the Interim Executive Director, he established the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria as a legal entity in 2002. He has previously served as board member of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, GAVI, UNAIDS and PMNCH and chaired a number of international working groups and processes.
He was the Director-General for the Swedish International Agency for Development Cooperation (2007-2010).
Moderated by:
Prof Hsu Li Yang
Vice Dean (Global Health)
Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health
National University of Singapore
Li Yang is an infectious diseases physician who has spent the past decade researching and treating patients with antibiotic-resistant bacterial and invasive fungal infections. He is currently Vice Dean of Global Health and Programme Leader of Infectious Diseases at the NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health.
He was formerly Clinical Director of the National Centre for Infectious Diseases and Director of the Singapore Infectious Diseases Initiative, which was established to spur collaborative biomedical and clinical research in infectious diseases.
Li Yang has served in several committees in the Ministry of Health (MOH). In particular, he co-chaired the RIE2020 infectious diseases workgroup, promoting antimicrobial stewardship, better control of antimicrobial resistance (leading to the launch of Singapore’s National Strategic Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance in November 2017), as well as tuberculosis. He continues to work with MOH on a part-time professional scheme. He has also served as a technical advisor on surveillance of antimicrobial resistance to the western pacific regional office of the World Health Organization.
Li Yang was the founding director of the School’s Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Research (CIDER) established in 2012, and has briefly worked in the private sector as an infectious disease physician, providing specialist services betw
Panellists:
Prof Ivy Ng
Group Chief Executive Officer
SingHealth
Professor Ivy Ng is the Group Chief Executive Officer of SingHealth (Jan 2012-2024). She was also previously Chief Executive Officer of KK Women’s & Children’s Hospital (KKH) and Deputy Group Chief Executive Officer of SingHealth.
SingHealth is Singapore’s largest healthcare group and comprises Singapore General Hospital, KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Changi General Hospital, Sengkang General Hospital, 5 National Specialty Centres (Cancer, Eye, Neurosciences, Dental and Heart), SingHealth Community Hospitals and 9 primary health polyclinics. SingHealth has also been charged to develop Eastern General Hospital.
She was conferred the Singapore Human Resource Institute Leading CEO Award 2008, the International Management Action Award 2010, the Public Administration Medal (Gold) 2011, Her World Woman of the Year 2012, NTUC May Day Medal of Commendation (Gold) Award 2020, NUS University Outstanding Service Award 2020 and President’s Science & Technology Medal 2021. She is member of the Boards of Duke-NUS School of Medicine, Singapore Management University, the National Medical Research Council (NMRC) and the Human Health and Potential (HHP) Committee.
She holds a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) and Master of Medicine (Paediatrics) from the National University of Singapore. She is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (FRCP, Edinburgh), Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (FRCPCH, London) and Academy of Medicine, Singapore (FAMS). She is Clinical Professor, Duke-NUS Medical School and Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore and Adjunct Professor, Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health.
Prof Vernon Lee
Group Director, Communicable Diseases Division,
Singapore Ministry of Health Executive Director, National Centre for Infectious Diseases
Executive Director, interim Communicable Diseases Agency (Singapore)
Professor Vernon Lee is a preventive medicine physician with extensive global health experience in pandemic preparedness and response, infectious disease epidemiology and health policy and management. He played an instrumental role in developing and implementing Singapore’s COVID-19 pandemic response, and has also responded to the 2003 SARS outbreak, 2009 influenza pandemic, and the 2016 Zika outbreak in Singapore.
Prof Lee previously served as Advisor to the Assistant Director General for Health, Security and Environment at the WHO headquarters in Geneva; Medical Epidemiologist in the WHO’s Country Office in Indonesia; and Head of the Biodefence Centre in the Singapore Armed Forces. Through his work, Prof Lee has been involved in major global health security collaborations, and in developing pandemic preparedness plans, risk assessment and disease management programmes. He continues to serve on expert committees at the international level.
An avid supporter of evidence-based health policy, Prof Lee has published about 200 scientific papers, many in top journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), and the Lancet journals. He is an Adjunct Professor at the Singapore’s Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health.
Prof Lee graduated from medical school at the National University of Singapore. He also holds a PhD in epidemiology from the Australian National University, and the Master in Public Health and Master of Business Administration degrees from the Johns Hopkins University, USA.
Dr Kiesha Prem
Programme Lead (NUS Public Health – Lao PDR Programme)
NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health
Dr Kiesha is an infectious disease modeller at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health at the National University of Singapore (NUS), where she received her PhD in Public Health. As an infectious disease modeller, she builds computational models to understand the population impact and cost-effectiveness of interventions against infectious diseases. Her research involves evaluating the population impact and cost-effectiveness of single-dose schedules for human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination globally, reviewing new evidence on HPV vaccination and responding to questions from governments and other decision-makers. Kiesha led the development and updates of the global age- and location-specific synthetic contact matrices for directly transmissible infections. She also leads the NUS public health office in Lao PDR and provides technical expertise to the national Tuberculosis and HIV programmes and other local partners in Cambodia.