Exploring Preventive Medicine & Public Health at the East Asian Medical Students’ Conference 2024

Contributed by Qwek Shao Yi
Third-year medical student at NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine EAMSC 2024 Publicity Team

What do chronic kidney disease, COVID-19 and HealthierSG have in common? They all come under the purview of public health and preventive medicine. This underappreciated field of medicine (well, at least to medical students!) was thrust into public scrutiny in recent times, especially with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Professor Tikki Pangestu and Yong Yi, a medical student from LKC Medicine, during a keynote lecture

For most of us, our exposure to public health and preventative medicine, in Singapore at least, was seeing our local task-force leaders – then-Minister Lawrence Wong, Minister Ong Ye Kung, and Prof Kenneth Mak, on our screens as they announced the Circuit Breaker in early 2020, sparking screams of joy from school-going teens, and foreshadowing the infamous “toilet-paper war” that ravaged supermarkets island wide.

The Indonesian delegation participating in the paper presentation

A delegate presenting his research poster to the panel of judges

However, amongst the rose-tinted lenses we had on the pandemic, the healthcare sector and public health officials were placed under the microscope as divisive policies were swiftly enacted against a backdrop of public distrust and misinformation. Beyond communicable diseases, public health also manages population health through education, access to healthcare and by creating guidelines and strategies for managing chronic conditions.

Since its initial inception in 1988, the East Asian Medical Students’ Conference (EAMSC) has been held annually in various countries by the Asian Medical Students Association (AMSA), an international organisation of medical students. The EAMSC serves as a networking event for AMSA members across various chapters, and seeks to establish itself at the forefront of championing global health issues amongst our aspiring clinicians by embracing experiential learning through academic, community service and social-cultural domains.

In the 2024 edition of EAMSC held at Singapore, the conference aims to provide a global platform for medical students to learn about different countries’ approaches to managing public health issues through oral and poster presentations, ‘ideathons’ (innovation challenges) and lectures by esteemed speakers such as Prof. Tikki Pangestu, Asst. Prof. Mark Chan Peng Chew, Associate Professor Ng Yih Yng and our Guest of Honour, Minister for Education, Mr Chan Chun Sing. Spanning five days, the conference took delegates across our two undergraduate medical schools, NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and NTU Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine.

On 20th January 2024, we welcomed a total of 209 overseas delegates and seven local presenters as the conference kicked off with a speech by Minister Chan Chun Sing at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine. Following a tour of the school, delegates were serenaded and entertained by different medical student bands and dance groups at a welcome dinner.

Delegates comparing various COVID-19 vaccine brands during their small group discussion

Over the next three days, delegates were subject to a rigorous spread of academic events, namely the academic paper and poster presentation competitions, as well as our brand-new ideathon event – which challenged delegates to come up with a technological innovation to tackle the topic of ‘Challenges in Mental Health’. Through multiple sharing sessions about various public health topics such as ‘Government response to the COVID-19 Pandemic’, delegates were able to share with others a broad spread of thought-provoking insights from their own countries with other participants, allowing participants to appreciate public health from a global perspective.

Delegates trying out henna during the cultural workshop

Delegates showcasing their local snacks

Delegates showing off their calligraphy

Delegates on their tour of Gardens by the Bay

Beyond academia, the delegates also had the opportunity to experience the sights and sounds of Singapore through a series of curated activities that include visiting cultural sights, trying out our local delights, and giving back through community service! Our cultural booths and cultural night on Day 2 and 4 of the conference also allowed delegates to share their culture with the rest of the participants through performances and a mini exhibition. The EAMSC organising committee is certain that the delegates had a fun-filled trip while having sufficient time to acclimatise to our humid weather!

Special shoutout to the MOH Office for Healthcare Transformation (MOHT), which we are honoured to have as our sponsor, and partner of the Asian Medical Students’ Association Singapore (AMSA SG) Internship Programme.
EAMSC 2024 certainly was an enriching and fun-filled experience that brought together future clinicians in and around Asia together to discuss the topic of public health, and we look forward to the next AMSA event, the Asian Medical Students’ Conference which will be held in Chiba, Japan this July. We hope that we have been gracious hosts to our esteemed friends from abroad and look forward to seeing them again during future AMSA events!

About the Author
Shao Yi is a third-year medical student at NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and is part of the Publicity Team in this edition of EAMSC. He often lurks behind the camera and hides behind multiple screens.