DukeMed Alumni News
Fall 2007

Duke Students Travel to
Singapore for GMS Opening

By Bernadette Gillis

Seeing the red tiled roofs atop the buildings of the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore was a surreal moment for Los Angeles native Beau Munoz, MSII.

“That first day I realized I was at Duke but at the same time I was on the other side of the globe,” says Munoz.

He was one of six Duke medical student ambassadors invited to travel to Singapore in August for the opening of Duke-NUS GMS.

He was joined by Taylor Herbert, a fourth-yearstudent in the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP); Drew Munro, MSIV; Crystal Reynolds, MSIV; Eleanor Vega, MSIII; and Charles Withers, MSIV—all Duke Medicine student leaders.

Flight delays kept the group from attending the Aug. 1 opening ceremonies, but they had plenty of opportunities to interact with Duke-NUS GMS students during their four-day stay. During a panel discussion they fielded questions from students. Just like any first-year students on opening day, they were a little nervous but eager to get started, says Withers.

“They had questions like what were the most challenging aspects of medical school and in what ways we felt we have been changed,” he says.

The 26 Duke-NUS GMS students come from seven countries. Eighteen are from Singapore, and the rest are from Indonesia, the U.S., Hong Kong, Malaysia, The Philippines, and India.

Next year’s entering class will have 50 students. Applicants must have an excellent academic record and be able to demonstrate clear evidence of leadership, scholarship, creativity, and a strong inclination towards research.

One of the current American students, Dixon Grant, who graduated magna cum laude from Utah State University, says one of the things that attracted him to Duke-NUS GMS was the opportunity to be a part of an international class. “I’m excited to be a part of something new,” he adds. “I like the idea of being a pioneer.”

A student from Indonesia, Astrid Melani Suantio, decided to become a doctor following her experience as a public health practitioner in Aceh following the Tsunami.

“There is a gap between the medicine, research, and public health fields…” she says. “As a future doctor with both a research and public health background, I aspire to merge and utilize all three fields in tackling health issues not only on a patient level, but also on a policy level.”

Some of the Duke-NUS GMS students have advanced degrees while others have had years of experience working in research, a fact that Munoz says impressed him early on after meeting the students. “I was surprised by the level of education that the students had. Not many people here (in the U.S.) usually enter medical school with PhDs or master’s degrees,” he says.

A student named Kwok Sze Nga, who spent four years working in pediatric oncology research before enrolling says “wanting to be a doctor (for me) is like others wanting to be priests or teachers or social workers. Being a clinician scientist is where my interest, aptitude, and passion combine with the desire to make a difference in others’ lives.”

Duke-NUS GMS is unique in the Asia-Pacific region, where students normally begin their medical training right out of high school and focus heavily on clinical training. The curriculum is based on Duke’s research-oriented curriculum, geared to training physician-scientists. It takes Duke’s innovation a step further with an emphasis on team learning. The Duke students got a taste of that when they joined an intense two-day workshop on team dynamics led by Duke Corporate Education.

The Duke-NUS GMS students were divided into small groups that they will continue to work in for their entire four years of medical school. The workshop offered information on personality types and discussions on conflict resolution, brainstorming, and networking.

The Duke medical students also had the chance to meet Duke-NUS GMS administrators and Singapore officials, including Tony Chew, chairman of the Duke-NUS GMS governing board; Professor Tan Ser Kiat, group CEO of SingHealth and CEO of Singapore General Hospital; and Karen Koh, deputy CEO of SingHealth.

The two groups of students also enjoyed some downtime together, when they learned about each other’s cultures and talked about their school and volunteer activities as well as personal issues such as maintaining relationships while in school and relieving stress.

“We formed remarkable fast friendships,” says Withers.

Reynolds adds: “I was most amazed at how much (the Duke-NUS GMS students) taught me. I was able to return to the U.S. with not only a renewed sense of purpose but also with a new commitment to being the best human I can be.”

The cross-continental connection between Duke and Duke-NUS GMS students will continue with videoconferences scheduled during the school year.

Each Duke-NUS GMS student has been assigned a peer mentor or “big sib” from Duke. “One thing about going to medical school here (at Duke) is that there are older students to help the younger ones,” says Herbert, who will be a big sib to one of the Duke-NUS GMS students. “We want to give their medical school class a sense of history, and as they build their own traditions, they’ll need us less and less.”

Duke students will have opportunities to travel to Singapore for their second-year clerkship rotations or third-year of research. Munoz says he hopes to go back to complete his surgical rotation in April.

Allison Betof, a second-year MSTP student, already spent five weeks this summer doing an orthopedic surgery rotation at the National University Hospital (NUH). While there she says she was exposed to surgical procedures she probably would have never had a chance to learn about at home.

“We did several cartilage stem cell transplants for osteoarthritis of the knee, which aren’t being done here at Duke or other U.S. centers due to limitations on stem cell research,” she says.

Because Duke-NUS GMS was not officially open when she was there, Betof’s rotation was not directly affiliated with the school. Yet she still was able to meet Robert K. Kamei, MD, vice dean for education, and tour the facility.
Misha Mutizwa, T’05, MSIII, is one of two Duke students who will complete their third year of research at Duke-NUS GMS. Working under the direction of David Virshup, MD, director of the Cancer and Stem Cell Biology Program, Mutizwa will spend the year doing basic science research in oncology.

Mutizwa says he had originally planned to pursue a master’s in public health during his third year but decided going to Singapore was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity he couldn’t afford to miss.

“The main reason I chose Duke for medical school was because of its unique third-year program,” he says, “so I figured that I might as well make the most of my third year and do something I wouldn’t have the chance to do at any other medical school.”