INTERVIEW
SingHealth DukeNUS invests in ‘the seeds of the future’ It launched a new institute that opens doors for maternal-child care research.
F
or SingHealth Duke-NUS, taking care of mothers and their kids should go beyond giving medical treatment by also optimising their mental, socioeconomic, and educational wellness. This goal was amplified after launching the Maternal and Child Health Research Institute (MCHRI) at the KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH). MCHRI, the culmination of SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Clinical Programmes for Paediatrics’ and Obstetrics & Gynaecology’s 10th year, is eyeing to advance the reproductive, metabolic, and mental health of women and their children through life-course strategy and creating the latest medical technology that will better manage pregnancies with genetic disorders. Healthcare Asia sat down with Associate Professor Ng Kee Chong, the recently appointed director of the MCHRI and the current medical board chairman of the KKH, to know more about the formation of the research institute, its goals, and what it contributes to the maternal and child health community in Singapore. Ng prides himself on being part of Singapore’s only women’s and children’s hospital, which has a rich 160-yearold history. The hospital also holds a Guinness Book world record with the most deliveries in 1966 at 39,835 births. According to Ng, KKH delivers more than one-third of the deliveries in Singapore every year. He added in the last five to ten years, they have worked through the Ministry of Health and charitable institutions to reach out to the community and develop an ecosystem to care for women and children better.
MCHRI aims to advance the reproductive, metabolic, and mental health of women and their children (Photo: Associate Professor Ng Kee Chong)
What are the medical highlights you can share for KKH, leading to the formation and launch of MCHRI? KKH has the largest child development unit in Singapore that helps improve care for child development and children with special needs such as attention deficit and learning disorders. We also work very closely with the community to try to improve care in the whole continuum. The second highlight is in psychosocial trauma support. We partnered with [the Temasek Foundation] to help improve psychosocial trauma support care for children in the community by working with the family service centres. We are also proud of the region’s first human milk bank, which opened two to three years ago. It currently provides pasteurised breast milk for babies who are unable to get breast milk. That helps to improve general health and prevent things like necrotising enterocolitis. How does KKH contribute to the MCHRI, and what will you continue to provide to meet the goals and mission of the MCHRI? What we are adopting is what we call a life-course approach to this whole continuum of care. Essentially, we are looking at maternal and child health as a whole continuous circle of life. The woman grows up to be healthy in society, marries 14
HEALTHCARE ASIA
We want to optimise the value of people by optimising their health
and sets up a family, becomes pregnant and gives birth to a child. Then, the child goes up healthy, becomes an adult, and then contributes back into the family life. The life-course approach refers to how we manage the health of the mother, the child, and the rest of the family. The husband-father is also important in the whole unit, as elements of health can affect them through various social and cultural issues also, not just medical parts. What we do not want to do is just “medicalise” health. Health is not just giving medicines but is also revolving around social aspects, economic aspects, and educational aspects, which are very important to consider. We want to look at it in the different dimensions so that we can appreciate the complexities of the health of the mother and child, and see how we can then improve and optimise the maternal-child health through these various aspects. We are not just working with the Ministry of Health as a hospital, but we also engage with social agencies. The key ones we work with are the Ministry of Social and Family Development, as well as the Ministry of Education. They are important elements if we want to optimise the health of mothers and children. In the end, our key goal is to essentially do three things: be Asia’s centre of excellence for maternal and child health, translate research to improve general health for mothers and children, and strengthen human capital. Singapore is not very rich in resources, but it has its people. So, we are aiming to optimise the value of people by optimising their health. The three arms of the SingHealth Duke-NUS MCHRI
