BioSpectrum Asia

Pioneer of palliative care in Singapore passes away

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Dr Cynthia Goh, an Emeritus Consultant in the Division of Supportive & Palliative Care at the National Cancer Centre Singapore and Associate Professor at the Duke-NUS Medical School, passed away recently due to pancreatic cancer. She was an accredited specialist in Internal Medicine and Palliative Medicine, and has a PhD in Molecular Biology. Dr Cynthia was one of the pioneers of hospice in Singapore, starting as a volunteer at St Joseph’s Home in 1986. She was the Founding President of the Hospice Care Associatio­n (now HCA Hospice Care). She was Medical Director of Assisi Hospice from 1994 to 1999. She received the national award, the Public Service Medal (PBM), in 1997 for her contributi­ons to hospice care in Singapore. Dr Cynthia started the Department of Palliative Medicine at the National Cancer Centre Singapore in 1999, the first in a government re-structured hospital, and headed it till 2011. This led to palliative care services being establishe­d in all public sector hospitals in Singapore, and Palliative Medicine to be recognised as a medical subspecial­ty in Singapore in 2006. She helped establish the Chapter of Palliative Medicine at the College of Physicians Singapore in 2011. She chaired the Palliative Medicine Subspecial­ty Training Committee of the Specialist Accreditat­ion Board.

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