International Partnerships

The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine led a two-year collaborative research programme on multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) with the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health (SSHSPH), the University of Public Health, Yangon, and the national tuberculosis programmes in Myanmar and Yunnan Province, China. The programme analysed risks associated with MDR-TB, health systems’ constraints to control, and the economics of control.

Apart from research collaboration, LSHTM and SSHSPH also jointly developed a short course on vaccinology that started in November 2013, with faculty from each school lending their teaching expertise to the course. Both schools are currently planning for the third iteration of this short course on vaccinology, in collaboration with the Faculty of Medicine, Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University. During the course, participants will learn epidemiological and immunological principles relevant to public health evaluation of vaccines, how to conduct and interpret vaccine trials, post-marketing surveillance, and more advanced topics involved in decision-making and vaccine introduction, including herd immunity, application of mathematical models to predict vaccine impact, and economic evaluation of vaccines.

The Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Faculty of Medicine, Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University on 28 September 2015 to collaborate in the following areas:

1. Exchange of students;
2. Exchange of faculty members and research staff;
3. Joint research activities;
4. Support of lectures, research workshops and symposia; and
5. Exchange of information and academic publications.

As part of this collaboration, both institutions, together with London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, put up a joint funding application to the Newton Research Fund in 2015 to conduct a workshop on genomic epidemiology. The application was granted and the workshop was run in Bangkok, Thailand on 7–11 March 2016, with participants from Thailand and the United Kingdom.

Other workshops jointly conducted by both institutions include:

1. Advanced Biostatistics with R, 16–20 January 2017
2. Biostatistics with R, 4–6 November 2015

The Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health signed an MOU with the Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kean University on 15 January 2016 to collaborate in the following areas:

1. Exchange of scientific, academic, and technical information and appropriate academic materials and other information of mutual interest for which each Party holds intellectual property rights;
2. Identification of opportunities for exchanges and cooperation and joint research and development in disciplines of mutual interest;
3. Identification of opportunities for the commercialisation of technology; and
4. Organisation of and participation in joint academic and scientific activities such as seminars and conferences.

The Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health and University of Health Sciences jointly established the UHS-SSHSPH Integrated Research Programme (USIRP). The programme was initially set up to focus on tuberculosis (TB) in Cambodia, specifically how resources should be allocated for the control of TB. Subsequently, the programme expanded its activities to include other areas such as antimicrobial resistance (AMR), workplace safety and health, and diabetes mellitus.

The USIRP office is based in Phnom Penh and currently houses two research fellows from SSHSPH, one research fellow and one research assistant from UHS, and an administrator. The programme works closely with other Cambodian institutions and non-governmental organisations, including Cambodia’s National Center for Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control (CENAT) that houses the country’s National TB Control Program (NTP).

USIRP has completed several studies on TB including a discrete choice experiment study to determine the best incentive combination to increase volunteer health workers’ motivation in carrying out health duties.

The programme is currently conducting spatiotemporal modelling of TB in Cambodia, where findings from in-depth spatial analyses of collected data are extrapolated to non-sampled parts of the country. The study combines the spatial analysis of TB prevalence with the evolving demographic characteristics in different parts of Cambodia to obtain reliable predictions of TB indicators for 2030 and 2050 at sub-national and national levels. These findings will assist the resource allocation by the NTP in Cambodia towards achieving the World Health Organization’s End TB Strategy targets.

In November 2016, the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health partnered with the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training in Cambodia, through the Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH), to jointly conduct a five-day course on ‘Advances in Occupational Health’ for staff from DOSH, as well as staff from other relevant Ministries.

Through lectures, tutorials and workplace visits, the course provided participants with knowledge about the principles of occupational health and work-related diseases, and improved their capacity to identify occupational safety and health hazards in order to formulate appropriate preventive actions.

In early 2018, the Minister of Labour and Vocational Training in Cambodia invited SSHSPH to convene an advisory team to support the establishment of a national accreditation programme for the training of occupational safety and health (OSH) officers in Cambodia. The team had its inaugural meeting in March 2018, and is currently working with DOSH to further understand the OSH situation in Cambodia.

With funding from Temasek Foundation International (TFI), and in collaboration with the Health Environment Management Agency (HEMA), Ministry of Health of Viet Nam, the School embarked on the TFI-NUS-Viet Nam project in September 2017. The project is a three-year public health programme in Viet Nam comprising several capacity building courses in occupational health, Total Workplace Safety and Health (Total WSH) and public health leadership.

The first course was conducted on 9–12 October 2017 in Ha Long, Quang Ninh, Viet Nam. Participants of the ‘Basic Course in Total WSH for Healthcare Facilities’ included ministry officials and senior management from hospitals who oversee the health protection and promotion of healthcare workers.

Subsequently, an MOU was signed on 6 May 2018 between SSHSPH and HEMA to mark the official launch of the Public Health Programme in Viet Nam.

Following the MOU signing, two more courses were conducted. The first was an advanced course in Total WSH held on 7–8 May 2018 as a follow-up to the basic course conducted in October 2017. Participants from hospital administrations across Viet Nam presented the general prevention and health promotion programmes at their workplaces, which they had planned and implemented after the first course in October.

The second was a basic course in Occupational Health conducted on 7–9 May 2018, with participants mainly from occupational health units under the Ministry of Health of Viet Nam.