SingHealth is working alongside nine leading academic medical centres and health systems worldwide to formalise a structured exchange programme for healthcare administrators. Administrators will spend six to eight weeks embedded inside these institutions across North America, Europe and Asia, working shoulder-to-shoulder with peers at some of the world’s most advanced health systems.SingHealth will also host administrators from these institutions, offering first-hand exposure into the ecosystem of an integrated, globally benchmarked public healthcare cluster that offers the full continuum of care under a single system.

SINGAPORE, Aug. 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — SingHealth launched the SingHealth International Administrators Fellowship Network at the opening ceremony of the Singapore Healthcare Management (SHM) 2026 congress today. The event was graced by Dr Tan See Leng, Minister for Trade and Industry (Energy and Industry), as Guest of Honour. SHM is an annual three-day congress bringing together healthcare leaders and experts from Singapore and abroad to exchange insights and best practices in healthcare administration.

The SingHealth International Administrators Fellowship Network marks the first of its kind – a consortium of ten leading academic medical centres and health systems dedicated to advancing knowledge exchange on a global stage through the establishment of a structured exchange programme for healthcare administrators. Selected administrators from these institutions will have the opportunity to be immersed in exchange programmes with other world-class health systems, bring back new ideas and best practices that strengthen their own institutions and build a global community of collaborative innovation and excellence.

Building a Global Community of Future-Ready Healthcare Leaders

Through the Network, selected administrators will undertake a structured programme of six to eight weeks in one of these institutions across North America, Europe and Asia. Together with SingHealth, the participating institutions include:

University Health Network, CanadaNYC Health + Hospitals, USAJohns Hopkins Health System, USAStanford Health Care, USANorthwell Health, USAMethodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, USAKarolinska University Hospital, SwedenBeijing Tsinghua Changgung Hospital, ChinaCUHK Medical Centre, Hong Kong, China

During the attachment, administrators work alongside their peers to exchange insights on leadership, transformation and innovation strategies, gaining first-hand exposure to the challenges and solutions shaping healthcare systems around the world, with lessons that resonate both today and in the years ahead.

“The establishment of the SingHealth International Administrators Fellowship Network signals SingHealth’s continued investment in developing our people as a strategic workforce that leads and thrives in an increasingly complex healthcare landscape. It also strengthens our position as a global platform for collaboration, knowledge exchange and innovation, as well as an employer and healthcare partner of choice,” said Mr Tan Jack Thian, Group Chief Operating Officer, SingHealth.

SingHealth plans to send 40 administrators through this programme over the next five years.

Administrators from Johns Hopkins, Stanford and the other institutions will also come to Singapore to experience being part of one of the world’s few fully integrated public healthcare clusters, where acute hospitals, specialty centres, polyclinics and community hospitals operate as one seamless system. For many, it will be their first encounter with a model of care that the world is increasingly looking to as a blueprint.

Dr Chung Kin Lai, CEO of CUHK Medical Centre, said, “Joining the SingHealth International Administrators Fellowship Network reflects our belief in the strategic importance of administrators in healthcare. This innovative initiative, led by SingHealth and supported by an international network of peers, will help broaden perspectives, exchange best practices, and develop administrators who are ready to grow with adaptability and insight.”

From Individual Attachments to an International Network

The SingHealth International Administrators Fellowship Network represents the next chapter in SingHealth’s commitment to international healthcare collaboration. Since its launch in 2023, the SingHealth Administrators Exchange Programme has built connections in different disciplines between administrators across institutions. The SingHealth International Administrators Fellowship Network now deepens those connections into a sustained, multilateral network across borders.

Under the previous SingHealth Administrators Exchange Programme, 16 administrators from SingHealth’s network of acute hospitals, specialty centres, polyclinics and community hospitals visited major overseas academic medical centres and health systems, returning with perspectives and practices that have shaped the way they work.

One such administrator is Mr Song Jiahui, Senior Assistant Director, Operations, Outram Community Hospital, who was attached to Northwell Health, USA. “I had the privilege to tour restricted sites such as the Northwell Health Central Sterile Facility and Integrated Distribution Center and even witnessed a decontamination exercise simulating a highway industrial accident. I also applied what I learnt from their Greenhouse Gas Inventory Management Plan when I contributed as a SingHealth representative in the nation’s first comprehensive study of healthcare system emissions, published in 2025. What struck me was how closely aligned SingHealth and Northwell Health are in their fundamental goals to deliver appropriate, high-quality care to the patients and communities we serve,” he said.

Please refer to the Annex for the experiences of former participants of the SingHealth Administrators Exchange Programme, and how their learnings have since been put to work across the organisation.

A National Congress by Healthcare Professionals, for Healthcare Professionals

The SHM Congress, now in its 15th edition, is Singapore’s premier conference bringing together healthcare administrators, professionals and thought leaders for dedicated learning and exchange. This year’s congress line-up features Adjunct Professor Adam Horsburgh, Chief Executive Officer, Bayside Health, Australia, who shared his experience on hospital mergers and AI use in healthcare; Dr Benjamin Granger, Chief Workplace Psychologist, Qualtrics Experience Management Institute, USA, who will provide insights on how to enhance patient experience through the experience of the care teams; as well as Mr Lian Ghim Hua, Commissioner, Immigration & Checkpoints Authority, Singapore, who will share about how ICA redefines border security and service delivery.

This year, the congress adds a dedicated Innovation track, where healthcare professionals from the Singapore National Eye Centre, Singapore General Hospital and the National University of Singapore Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine discuss the healthcare innovation journey and what goes behind each breakthrough that impacts clinical care.

The congress drew over 2000 local and international delegates representing a range of expertise from healthcare management to supply chain management and patient experience. More than 500 posters of innovative initiatives were sent in by healthcare institutions across Singapore on topics ranging from Healthcare Engineering to Human Resource, a testament to the breadth and depth of ideas and practices that have contributed to the advancement of healthcare in the management and administration fields.

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About Singapore Health Services (SingHealth) 

SingHealth, Singapore’s largest and leading public healthcare cluster, puts patients at the heart of all we do. Through our network of acute hospitals, national specialty centres, polyclinics and community hospitals, SingHealth delivers integrated care across every stage of life, from prevention and diagnosis to treatment, rehabilitation and long-term health management, offering multidisciplinary expertise across a wide range of specialties. Beyond hospital walls, SingHealth partners community care providers to enable the population to keep well, get well and live well. As an academic medical centre, SingHealth partners Duke-NUS Medical School and forms strategic collaborations across industries and the academia to advance research, innovation and education. Our goal is to drive impactful care outcomes, enhance patient experience and transform healthcare delivery, here and on the global front.

 For more information, please visit: www.singhealth.com.sg

Members of the SingHealth group 

Hospitals (Tertiary Specialty Care):
Singapore General Hospital, Changi General Hospital, Sengkang General Hospital, KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, and Eastern General Hospital (expected completion around 2029 to 2030)

National Specialty Centres (Tertiary Specialty Care):
National Cancer Centre Singapore, National Dental Centre Singapore, National Heart Centre Singapore, National Neuroscience Institute, and Singapore National Eye Centre

SingHealth Polyclinics (Primary Care):
Bedok, Bukit Merah, Eunos, Marine Parade, Outram, Pasir Ris, Punggol, Sengkang, Tampines, Tampines North and Kaki Bukit (upcoming)

SingHealth Community Hospitals (Intermediate and Long-term Care):
Sengkang Community Hospital, Outram Community Hospital, and Eastern Community Hospital (expected completion around 2029 to 2030)

Annex

Song Jiahui
Senior Assistant Director, Operations, Outram Community Hospital
Attachment with Northwell Health | September – October 2024

Jiahui’s attachment with Northwell Health broadened his perspective on operational planning and sustainability.

Across 10 departments, he engaged with issues ranging from waste audits to business continuity planning and toured restricted facilities including Northwell’s Central Sterile Facility and Integrated Distribution Center. Witnessing a live decontamination exercise simulating a highway industrial accident was among the more striking highlights.

What surprised him was the sheer breadth and complexity of scenarios that Northwell’s Business Continuity department planned for, including union agreement expiries, energy crises, adverse climate events disrupting staff commutes, the cascading effects of disasters in neighbouring states and cybersecurity threats. The teams meticulously mapped out contingency plans for each, including how multiple crises might unfold simultaneously and compound one another. It reinforced for Jiahui that effective continuity planning must be deeply attuned to the social, political, and environmental context in which a health system operates.

Back at SingHealth, Jiahui put his learnings to work. Drawing on Northwell’s Greenhouse Gas Inventory Management Plan, he contributed as a SingHealth representative to Singapore’s first comprehensive study of healthcare system emissions, published in 2025.

He also worked with SingHealth’s Office of Sustainable Health to implement an eco-checklist to share easy, actionable sustainability tips with staff, making it simple to adopt greener behaviours in their day-to-day work. The team also developed seasonal festive guides to educate staff on simple ways to be more sustainable during festive periods, a timely and relatable way to nudge behavioural change without being prescriptive. Together, these initiatives have helped embed a stronger culture of environmental responsibility across the SingHealth campus.

Lee Hui Quan
Director, Business Office, KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital
Attachment with Stanford Health Care | May – June 2025

For Hui Quan, the attachment offered an exposure into advanced financial management practices within one of the United States of America’s leading healthcare institutions.

Through various strategic senior management, stakeholder and workgroup meetings, as well as one-to-one conversations with Finance leaders, he gained insight into the financial planning and management practices of a complex healthcare system, as well as training in a range of business intelligence tools for data-driven decision-making and finance analytics.

Returning to SingHealth, Hui Quan brought fresh perspectives that strengthened ongoing efforts to build a more sophisticated financial management ecosystem. As Co-Lead of SingHealth’s National Billing System (NBS) implementation and Lead for SingHealth Payment Solutions, he deepened the team’s understanding in leveraging data-driven financial management tools across cost accounting, contract analytics, budgeting, forecasting, and benchmarking. His leadership supported SingHealth’s financial transformation agenda by advancing the automation of financial analysis and reporting, enhancing operational insights, and enabling more timely, data-driven decision-making.

Ong Li Wen 
Deputy Director, Facilities Management, Changi General Hospital 
Attachment with NYC Health + Hospitals Design Planning & Facilities Development and Facilities Management | September – October 2025  

Li Wen’s attachment at NYC Health + Hospitals placed her at the heart of real-world facilities management challenges. A highlight was her involvement in managing a live major incident affecting the hospital’s incoming electrical supply — visiting switch rooms, monitoring voltage fluctuations, reviewing contingency measures, and contributing to the response team’s decision-making. It was a masterclass in high-stakes infrastructure management under pressure. Beyond the incident, she gained exposure to critical systems including water treatment, boilers, and generators, as well as climate-resilient infrastructure designed to withstand natural disasters and environmental disruptions, broadening her perspective on what robust, future-ready facilities management looks like.

Back at SingHealth, Li Wen translated these experiences into tangible improvements. As lead for Digitalisation and Innovation within SingHealth’s Facilities Management Engineering Shared Services, the attachment sharpened her thinking on how to strengthen SingHealth’s critical infrastructure. It sparked innovative engineering solutions for utility plants, including more energy-efficient approaches to heat recovery solutions for water systems and enhanced water quality management strategies, reinforcing SingHealth’s commitment to building a resilient, sustainable healthcare campus for staff and patients alike.

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SOURCE SingHealth