SINGAPORE – From 2027, junior doctors shadowing senior physicians on their rounds at Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) will be joined by undergraduates studying traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).
They will be final-year students of
the four-year Bachelor of Chinese Medicine programme at Nanyang Technological University (NTU)
.
The hospital is joining forces with the university to combine Western treatments with Eastern therapies in exploring the role of TCM as a complementary modality.
Through the collaboration, called the Prevention and Recovery through Integrative Medicine, the institutions will look into the role of TCM to manage pain, relieve symptoms and support rehabilitation.
The partnership was inked on Oct 9 at the 23rd Singapore Health and Biomedical Congress, held at the Singapore Expo.
In his keynote address, Senior Minister of State for Health Koh Poh Koon said the partnership will not only align clinical and academic efforts to enhance patient care, but also “provide cross-training for TCM and Western medical students, and advance research and evidence-based practices in integrative medicine”.
“This collaboration will equip more clinicians with skills to meet the growing demand for integrative care approaches,” added Dr Koh, who is also Senior Minister of State for Manpower.
Under the partnership, final-year TCM students will undergo clinical rotations at TTSH from 2027. They will observe how TCM and Western medicine coexist in patient care while learning practical knowledge tailored to Singapore’s healthcare.
This partnership will strengthen the training of TCM practitioners, said Professor Benjamin Seet, group chairman of the medical board (research) and co-chair for the Academic Partnership Office at NHG Health.
Citing the 2022 National Population Health Survey, Dr Quah Teik Joo, who heads complementary integrative medicine at TTSH, said about one in five adult Singaporeans uses TCM services annually and about 40 per cent of them use TCM and Western medicine concurrently.
