Graduates totaling 121 successfully complete their studies at Duke-NUS Medical School; some of these graduates have secured positions in fields outside of medicine, such as law, public relations, and accounting.
In Singapore, Dr. Faith Wong, a 44-year-old woman with no prior science background, recently graduated from Duke-NUS Medical School. This marks a significant career shift for her, having previously worked in the animation industry.
Struggling with depression during her teenage years, Dr. Wong was eventually diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Her experiences propelled her to pursue a career in medicine. On May 31, she joined 120 other graduates at the Ngee Ann Kongsi Auditorium, marking the largest class in the school's 20-year history.
Approximately 41% of the 72 doctor of medicine graduates, including Dr. Wong, made mid-career changes, hailing from diverse fields such as law, public relations, accounting, and mental health support. The remaining graduates held PhDs or master's degrees.
Dr. Wong spoke about her journey, noting, "I deeply reflected and prayed about how best to serve others with this second lease of life. The answer that came to me, very clearly and consistently, was to become a doctor."
Transitioning into the medical field wasn't without challenges. Dr. Wong had to overcome the hurdle of taking the Medical College Admission Test, a formidable task for someone not having studied a major science in over two decades. She admitted, "For the first three months, biochemistry felt like reading a foreign language."
Balancing her family responsibilities with her studies, Dr. Wong spent most nights and weekends studying. Despite the physical challenges of clinical rotations, her stamina improved, and she found hands-on assignments, such as dissection work, engaging.
Her non-traditional science background sometimes offered unique perspectives when approaching clinical problems, adding a creative thinking dimension to her work.
After graduation, Dr. Wong's ambition is to establish an emergency mental health respite care center in Singapore, a safe haven for individuals seeking help.
Health Minister Ong Ye Kung, the guest of honor at the event, acknowledged the graduates' unique pathways into medicine and encouraged them to remain resilient and optimistic. Addressing the challenges in the profession, such as high patient loads and demanding patients, he assured the graduates that they can overcome these hurdles.
Singapore, according to Ong, is proactively addressing an aging population, medical advancements, and a global shortage of healthcare workers, promoting healthcare transformation through investments in community care systems, infrastructure, and the adoption of digital and AI technology in healthcare.
Another graduate, Dr. Loh De Rong, 28, aims to combine his engineering background and medical knowledge to improve healthcare systems and patient outcomes. He is part of a special program that grants conditional admissions to pre-university students from other fields to pursue medical studies at Duke-NUS.
This program, launched in 2017, allows interested students to first apply to study undergraduate subjects at one of Duke-NUS' partner universities before transitioning to the postgraduate medical school to study medicine. They spend a total of seven years undergoing undergraduate studies for three or four years followed by four years at the postgraduate medical school.
Dr. Loh, a recent graduate from the Singapore University of Technology and Design, studied computer science, specializing in machine learning and software engineering. He expressed his enthusiasm for contributing to clinical AI projects and critically evaluating the application of AI in healthcare.
Dr. Wong's journey led her to envision a future in both health-and-wellness and mental-health care, as she aims to establish an emergency mental health respite center. She believes her education-and-self-development experiences, rooted in her non-traditional science background, can contribute valuable insights to the medical field. Meanwhile, Dr. Loh De Rong, equipped with his engineering and computer science background, aspires to blend technology and medicine to enhance healthcare systems and patient outcomes, aligning with Singapore's proactive approach towards healthcare transformation through digital and AI technology.
