Singapore's NUHCS announced that Professor Tan Huay Cheem will be relinquishing his role as Director of the National University Heart Centre, Singapore (NUHCS) on 1 July 2021. For the last 13 years, Prof Tan has charted the growth of the centre in many ways. He has strengthened manpower training and development of clinical programmes, instituted structured training programmes for trainees, nurtured a research ecosystem, and cultivated young clinician scientists. 

Under his leadership, the centre has achieved numerous clinical breakthroughs. He converted the primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) programme for patients with acute ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) heart attack into a 24/7 service in 2001. In 2017, he inaugurated the Western STEMI network in the Western region of Singapore, achieving the shortest door-to-balloon time for patients transfer to National University Hospital (NUH) and lowest STEMI mortality rates in Singapore.

The Department of Cardiac, Thoracic and Vascular Surgery also achieved peaks of excellence such as the Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery Programme and the Aortic Centre. The mobile Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) service also played a crucial role during the COVID-19 pandemic, providing care to the most severely ill COVID-19 patients. 

Taking over the baton will be Associate Professor James Yip. An accomplished cardiologist and clinician-scientist, A/Prof Yip helped developed the structural heart disease programme in NUH and the National University Health System (NUHS) from 2003-2017. He has also led many international trials in pulmonary hypertension as Principal Investigator.

A/Prof Yip played an instrumental role in developing the undergraduate ultrasound training module in the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, and is a core tutor and program evaluation member of the NUHS senior residency program in cardiology. He has been conferred the NUH University Medical Cluster Outstanding Tutor Award six times since 2010 in recognition of his contributions to undergraduate medical teaching. 

A/Prof Yip was appointed Chief Medical Informatics Officer of NUH in 2006 and has served as NUHS Group Chief Medical Informatics Officer since 2017. He will relinquish his GCMIO role when he assumes the role of Director, NUHCS on 1 July 2021.

Image Caption: Prof Tan Huay Cheem (Left); AProfessor James Yip (Right)