Division of Respiratory & Critical Care Medicine

The Division comprises a team of doctors who specialise in the fields of respiratory medicine, focusing on disorders of the lungs, and critical care medicine focusing on critically ill patients. It provides tertiary care to patients with lung disorders as well as patients in the Medical Intensive Care Unit and Medical High Dependency Unit using state-of-the-art medicines and equipment.

The Division strongly believes in evidence-based medicine, is actively involved in research, and has published extensively on topics like pleural disorders, pneumonia, tuberculosis, obstructive lung diseases, bronchology, sleep disorders, critical illness and medical education.

Its structured teaching curriculum for the future generation of doctors focuses not only on academic content but also on interactive, cognitive and practical skills training conducted under close supervision with an array of teaching aids, from high-fidelity medical simulation to task trainers for bag-valve mask ventilation, intubation and ultrasound guided central line insertion. 

In recent years, the Division of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine has taken on several quality improvement initiatives for various diseases. With its comprehensive chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) program, from the year 2001 to 2009, it has seen a progressive decrease in the length of stay (LOS) (6.0 to 4.1 days) and mortality (6.0% to 2.5%) for COPD. Meanwhile, from 2008 to 2009, the average LOS for community-acquired pneumonia decreased from 5.4 to 4.6 days, while the unscheduled readmission rate decreased from 4.5% to 2.7%.

Other initiatives include steps to expedite the diagnosis and management of parapneumonic effusion, pulmonary tuberculosis, lung cancer, mediastinal masses, pulmonary embolism, obstructive sleep apnea and severe sepsis. In the research arena, recent publications in top tier journals include the first-ever validation of the Infectious Diseases Society of America/American Thoracic Society criteria for severe pneumonia, the use of noninvasive ventilation in bronchiectasis, and the largest-ever analysis of mortality trends in the acute respiratory distress syndrome.