Third Spacing

What is it like to be saddled in debt before your work even begins? How would you feel if your employer refused to let you quit your job? What if they even confiscated your phone and passport against your will? Today, over 1 million low-wage migrant workers are employed in various sectors in Singapore. Foreign domestic workers (FDWs) occupy a unique niche in this system, living in with their emplo...

In this episode, we explore Dr. Ben Kuan’s journey—from his early days as a medical volunteer to becoming a key advocate for low-wage migrant workers' healthcare. As a family physician, CEO, and passionate public health champion, Dr. Ben Kuan shares his insights on leading through crises, and the future of sustainable healthcare for vulnerable communities. What is Third Spacing? By healthcare...

On 26 May 2012, Dr Kumaran Rasappan became the first Singaporean physician to summit Mount Everest. What comes next? In this episode, we continue exploring Dr Kumaran’s insights into medical care in Singapore and abroad, how his love for mountaineering brought him to provide care for the communities in Nepal, and the recent launch of his book No Mountain Too High . 00:00: Finding Balance in Life 0...

On 26 May 2012, Dr Kumaran Rasappan became the first Singaporean physician to summit Mount Everest. The culmination of years of planning, preparation, uncertainty brought him to the top of the world – physically and metaphorically. What comes next? In this episode, we catch up with Dr Kumaran on how life at normal altitude has been like after reaching the highest peak in the world. He shares with...

The Philippines is one of the world’s largest exporters of migrant labour, with a significant number of its citizens employed in healthcare as nurses. Asst Professor Yasmin Ortiga from the Singapore Management University is a sociologist who aims to answer why and what impact this has. Taking a historical view, Asst Professor Ortiga traces this phenomenon back to the Philippine's US colonial past...

Victoria Wondersnatch is a drag queen who is also a clinician-scientist. In this episode, we discuss her journey in combining these two paths. In our episode, Wondersnatch shared how their journey started with watching YouTube make-up tutorials, performing in modest gatherings, and now starring in and writing regularly sold out larger-than-life spectacles with Drag Qabaret. Now, Wondersnatch also...

Dr. Tsoi Wing Foo is a renowned psychiatrist with over 60 years of experience in the field. He dedicated his career to the care of transgender people and is one of the pioneers in transgender psychiatry in Singapore. Dr. Tsoi also authored the book "Cries from Within," which explores the challenges faced by transgender people in Singapore and the available treatment options. In this epis...

Disclaimer: The views expressed in the interview are his own and do not reflect the views of his employer. Dr Gerald Sng shares his perspective as a researcher of junior doctor burnout. In our first ever video episode, Dr Sng discusses the factors contributing to high rates of burnout among junior doctors, and explores what can be done to address it. He draws insight from his research into residen...

In this episode, we talk to Dr. Jonathan Ng, CEO and founder of Iterative Health, a US-based healthcare startup pioneering the use of AI-based precision medicine for the detection and treatment of gastrointestinal diseases. He’s also the chairman of Children of Cambodia, a philanthropic organization he set up at 16 years old that helped establish Cambodia's first neonatal ICU, pediatric burns and...

In this episode, we shift our conversation with Hazirah Mohamed, a public health PhD student at the University of Toronto, towards health equity at large, where her research focuses on resource allocation in end of life care. She shares her journey to public health, her insights to designing a patient-centred preventive health model, in light of HealthierSG, and how we can make change in the very...

In the first of this two-part episode we talk to Hazirah Mohamed (she/her), a public health PhD student at the university of Toronto. She is the author of “Kita dah cukup manis? (We are sweet enough?): Resisting the bitter pill of racialised health framing on the Malay community” in Brown is Redacted, an anthology of essays on race in Singapore. We discuss the uses of race in society and in medici...

In this episode, we interview Prof Roger Foo, a practicing cardiologist who is also the Director of the NUSmed and NUHS Cardiovascular Disease Translation Research programmes, and head of the NUHS Clinician Scientist Academy. We talk about his path to becoming a clinician scientist, how his interest in cardiology developed, exciting insights into cardiovascular research and tips for students to en...

In this episode, we speak to Dr. Jeremiah Pereira, the Medical Director of MaNaDr Clinic, who is one of Singapore's only physicians with gender-affirming care as their primary focus. We break down the meaning behind the term gender-affirming care, what it is commonly perceived as, and what it is not, the motivations behind pursuing this work, and the importance of acknowledging Singapore's history...

In this episode, we speak to Faith Nadine, a PGY2 who now practices as a locum GP and blogs at Chasing Faith and Love. We honestly talk about her reasons for walking down this unconventional pathway, mental health as a junior doctor, and her thoughts on her future.

In this episode, we talk to Dr Evelyn Wong, Associate Consultant and Founding Member of the Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology Services at the National Cancer Centre Singapore. She shares the challenges faced by her adolescent and young adult cancer patients as well as the development of her app, AYABytes, which hopes to improve the health literacy of our patients in Singapore. Through this endea...

[00:00:30] What is functional abdominal pain? [00:02:17] What is the difference between functional and idiopathic? [00:03:37] What is the patient journey like through the healthcare system from their family doctors all the way until you see them in a hospital as a specialist? [00:05:39] Walk through the approach of helping patients once they are in front of you. [00:07:50] Navigating the shift awa...

In this episode, we talk to Dr Renzo Guinto, who is the Chief Planetary Health Scientist & Co-Founder of Sunway Centre for Planetary Health in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and A/Prof at the Practice of Global Public Health of the Planetary and Global Health Program of the St. Luke’s Medical Center College of Medicine in the Philippines. Having obtained his PhD in Public Health from Harvard, he talks...

In this episode we talk to Associate Professor Sophia Archuleta, the Head of the Division of Infectious Diseases in NUH and President of the NUHS Women in Science and Healthcare (WISH) initiative. She shares her experience of being a woman in healthcare, the need for advocacy to come from both women and women, for more female representation in healthcare leadership, as well as how we can start ret...

In the second part of this episode, Dr. Lakshmi compares her clinical training in Singapore to the very diverse backgrounds of her colleagues in the US. She argues that there are universal ideas such as implicit bias training and provision of culturally competent care that are also very much applicable in the Singapore context and therefore should also be explored. Finally, Dr. Lakshmi contends th...

In the first part of this episode, Dr. Lakshmi shares about her early experiences being involved in Global Health work and research. Her frequent visits to relatives in India exposed her constantly to the realities of poverty and inspired her to think of how public health and medicine can be used to address social problems as well. Dr. Lakshmi further elaborates on how to avoid the trap of "volunt...

In this episode, we interview Dr Victor Zhuang, a Fung Global Fellow at the Institute of International and Regional Studies, Princeton University, an International Postdoctoral Scholar at the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, NTU, as well as Principal Consultant with SG Enable. We talk about what the disability research field is like in Singapore, technology and disability, as w...

In this episode, we interview Clydia Tan, who identifies as a person with hearing loss, who trained in nursing. She shares the challenges she encountered during her nursing studies and we explore how aspiring healthcare professionals with disabilities can be better supported. We also discuss how healthcare workers with disabilities add value to the delivery of patient care.

In this episode, we interview Dr Paige Terrien Church, a neonatologist and developmental-behavioural paediatrician at the University of Toronto. She shares her personal journey as a physician living with spina bifida and describes some challenges she has encountered in her medical career. We also discuss her 2017 publication in JAMA paediatrics entitled “A Personal Perspective on Disability: Betwe...

In this episode, we talk to Ms Cassandra Chiu, a psychotherapist who happens to be blind. As the first female guide dog user in Singapore and author of the book “A Place For Us”, she shares her experience as a disability rights advocate in Singapore. We discuss what her work entails, she elaborates on some anecdotes from her book, and sheds light on how we can all play a part towards building a mo...

In this episode, we talk to Dr Satveer Kaur-Gill, a postdoctoral Research Associate at The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice, as she shares about the challenges the marginalised face in navigating health infrastructure. We discuss about cultural and structural competence when assessing any patient, especially the underprivileged, and most importantly how to make researc...