The Singapore Health Services and Duke University–National University of Singapore Graduate Medical School Academic Medical Center: Transforming Medicine Through Collaborative Innovation

Singapore Health Services (SingHealth) and Duke University–National University of Singapore Graduate Medical School (Duke-NUS) established an academic partnership, which was born out of a single vision to transform medicine and improve lives. This partnership seeks to harness the collective strengths of Duke-NUS’s medical education and research capabilities and SingHealth’s clinical expertise via the development of an academic medical center in 2014. The academic medical center’s 2,600-strong faculty (as of March 2024) encourage students to pursue careers as “Clinicians Plus”—outstanding clinicians with broader capabilities as clinician-scientists, educators, leaders, and/or entrepreneurs. This article describes the SingHealth Duke-NUS academic medical center’s journey, including how the medical school and health system achieved a functionally integrated model, as well as the important attributes that enabled the SingHealth Duke-NUS academic medical center to move forward at a rapid pace and be consistently ranked among the world’s best academic medical centers: a shared vision, joint structural planning and governance, talent development and workforce capacity, and academic investment.

Duke Scholars

Author Victor J. Dzau Medicine, Cardiology

Author Thomas Myron Coffman Medicine, Nephrology