Prof Suresh Pillai

Director, Centre for Healthcare Simulation, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine National University of Singapore

Prof Suresh is currently the Director, Centre for Healthcare Simulation at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (YLL SoM), National University of Singapore, the largest medical school in Singapore as well as the top medical school in Asia for 2017. He has been credited with the introduction and integration of simulation into the medical undergraduate and postgraduate curriculum and has designed extremely popular, well-received & highly rated intensive boot-camp simulation training programmes for graduating medical students. He has also been instrumental in developing simulation-based training programs that have been weaved into the mainstream curriculum, enhancing clinical education by correlating didactic teaching with experiential learning. He was recently awarded a grant to develop Virtual Reality Simulation Modules in Healthcare Education at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore. He has since introduced innovative virtual reality simulation modules into the medical undergraduate curriculum, primarily in Anatomy and Clinical Pathophysiology, to augment medical education, a world’s first. He has an on-going passion to pursue and constantly develop and integrate innovative educational pedagogies to enhance clinical medical education.

With regards to simulation faculty development and training, he served recently as Co-Chair for the 3rd Asia Pacific Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare (APMSH Meeting) in Singapore in Nov 2016. He is a highly sought after speaker on simulation education and simulation faculty development and has conducted courses and plenaries around the world. He is also the current and 2-term President of the Society for Simulation in Healthcare, Singapore.

His clinical appointments include being a Senior Consultant in Emergency Medicine at the Emergency Medicine Department, National University Hospital (NUH), Singapore for which he has completed a Fellowship in Accident & Emergency Medicine & Surgery from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh as well as a Fellowship in Medical Toxicology from the Poison Control Centre, University of California, San Francisco.

As education faculty, he is an Examiner & Core Faculty in the Emergency Medicine Residency Program at NUH and also serves as a trainer and Examiner during the Emergency Medicine Master of Medicine/Member, College of Emergency Medicine (MMed/MCEM) examinations as well as the Emergency Medicine Exit Examinations for trainee specialists.

For his educational endeavours, he has garnered numerous Teaching Awards over the years. Since 2007, he has received annually the Dean's Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, the Medical Society Teacher's Day Award, Top Ten Tutors & Role Models at YLL SoM, the prestigious Faculty Teaching Excellence Award 2015 & Annual Teaching Excellence Award 2015.

He is also Director of the Basic Cardiac Life Support (BCLS) Program in the National University Health System as well as an ACLS, ATLS & PALS instructor respectively. He is also a Lecturer & Trainer in the HazMat Medical Life Support Course conducted by the Ministry of Health, Singapore. He has co-authored several chapters in "Guide to Essentials in Medicine" (McGraw Hill Publishers) and authored a chapter on “Bioterrorism” in “Hazmat Medical Life Support, A Basic Provider Manual” (World Scientific Publishers).

He has also been appointed a Project Consultant in Emergency Preparation & Readiness Division at the Ministry of Health, Singapore and has developed national medical response plans for radiation emergencies for all Public Health Institutions. He was also appointed Chairman, Medical Services Subcommittee at the APEC Meetings, Singapore (2008-2009) served as Deputy Chairman, Medical Services Subcommittee, 1st Youth Olympic Games, Singapore (2010) as well as undertaken the role of Chief Medical Officer at the 28th South East Asian Games & 8th ASEAN Paralympic Games, Singapore (2015).

Over the years, he has also been actively involved in disaster response at hospital, national & international levels. He has spearheaded national humanitarian medical relief missions to Indonesia & Sri Lanka (2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami), Pakistan (Earthquake of 2005) and Nepal (Earthquake of 2015). For his humanitarian efforts he was conferred the prestigious National Day Award, 2005 for humanitarian relief efforts by the President of Singapore.

Check out the incredible speaker line-up to see who will be joining Suresh.

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