NLB and BAC Launch Bioethics Corner
Bioethics Corner at the Lee Kong Chian Reference Library
[Photo Credit: The National Library Board]
Patrons at the Lee Kong Chian Reference Library will be able to explore a new section, the Bioethics Corner from today, 29 Oct 2022. Here, they can discover and learn more about the ethical issues in areas such as Big Data and Artificial Intelligence in healthcare, surrogacy, organ transplants and genetic manipulation. Patrons can pick from more than 160 titles available in the new section, or through NLB’s Mobile App where they can find more than 13,600 books and 5,500 e-books related to bioethics.
NLB’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr Ng Cher Pong (left), and BAC’s Chair, Prof Lee Eng Hin (right),
at the launch of the Bioethics Corner [Photo Credit: The National Library Board]
NLB’s Librarian (Arts & Gen Ref), Ms Rosxalynd Liu leading the tour of the Bioethics Corner
[Photo Credit: The National Library Board]
NLB’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr Ng Cher Pong, said: “This is an area of emerging importance and interest among our patrons, and we are glad to partner the Bioethics Advisory Committee to offer such materials for everyone to discover and learn from. As part of LAB25’s plans to build a Learning Marketplace, we will continue to grow the collection and make bioethics titles and programmes more widely available to all, including at our public libraries.”
Bioethics experts and participants discussed the use of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence in human biomedical research at the launch of the Bioethics Corner.
From left to right: Dr Pavitra Krishnaswamy, Senior Scientist and Principal Investigator at the Machine Intellection Department and Deputy Head at Healthcare and MedTech Division at the Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R) at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Dr Creighton Heaukulani, Senior Data Scientist at the Ministry of Health (MOH) Office for Healthcare Transformation (MOHT), Moderator Professor Patrick Tan Boon Oi, Executive Director of the Genome Institute of Singapore, Professor Julian Savulescu, the Chen Su Lan Professor in Medical Ethics at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Dr Voo Teck Chuan, Assistant Professor at the Centre for Biomedical Ethics at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at the National University of Singapore (NUS)
[Photo Credit: The National Library Board] (More details on the panel session can be found in Annex C).
Please refer to the Annexes for more information on the Bioethics Corner.
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About the National Library Board
The National Library Board (NLB) nurtures Readers for Life, Learning Communities and a Knowledgeable Nation by promoting reading, learning and history through its network of 28 libraries, the National Library and the National Archives of Singapore. NLB also forges strategic partnerships that encourage awareness, appreciation and greater discovery of Singapore's history through its rich collections in Singapore and the region.
NLB achieves excellence through innovation, focusing on citizen engagement and co-creation, resource and digital innovation. This creates learning opportunities, greater access to library resources, services, and archival collections, as well as a continual development of innovative library spaces. Established on 1 September 1995 as a statutory board, NLB is under the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI).
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Annex A: About the Bioethics Corner
Following the launch of the Bioethics Corner today, 29 Oct 2022, NLB and BAC will progressively grow the collection – both physical books and e-books - over the next three years, and explore offering more of these resources at NLB’s public libraries and through its Mobile App. Patrons can also look forward to learning more about bioethics at upcoming programmes co-organised by NLB and BAC. More details will be announced closer to date.
NLB’s partnership with BAC to bring resources on bioethics, an area of emerging interest and importance, to everyone. It is part of NLB’s LAB25 (Libraries and Archives Blueprint) goals, in collaboration with its partners, to build a more robust Learning Marketplace and nurture an Informed Citizenry with more learning resources in a wide range of subject matters.
Annex B: Key Titles in the Bioethics Corner
Singapore titles:
- Ethics Guidelines for Human Biomedical Research / Bioethics Advisory Committee Singapore
2021 revised edition. Call No.: R Sing 174.28 SIN - Organ Gold: A medical thriller / Raju Chellam
2018. Available in LKCRL and PLs. Call No.: R Sing 823 CHE (in NL), or CHE (in PLs) - Bioprinting: principles and applications / Chee Kai Chua, Wai Yee Yeong
2015. Available in LKCRL. Call No.: R Sing 616.07 CHU - How We Think About Dementia: Personhood, rights, ethics, the arts and what they mean for care / Julian C. Hughes
Available in Overdrive, LKCRL and PL. Call No.: 616.83 HUG (in NL) or 616.83 HUG-[HEA] (in PL) - The First Shots: The epic rivalries and heroic science behind the race to the coronavirus vaccine / Brendan Borell
2021. Available in eBook/eAudiobook on Overdrive and public libraries. Call No.: 615.372 BOR-[HEA] - The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks / Rebecca Skloot
Available in Overdrive, LKCRL and PLs. Call No.: 616.02774092 SKL- [HEA] - Altered Inheritance: CRISPR and the ethics of human genome editing / Françoise Baylis
Available in LKCRL and PLs. Call No.: 576.5 BAY
AI/Big Data-related titles:
- Data analytics for Pandemics: A Covid-19 Case Study / Gitanjali Rahul Shinde
2020. Available in Overdrive - Predictive Medicine: Artificial Intelligence and its impact on healthcare business strategy / Emmanuel Fombu
2020. Available in Overdrive. - Birth of Intelligence: From RNA to Artificial Intelligence / Daeyeol Lee
2020. Available in Overdrive.
Annex C: Details of the Panel Session at the Launch of the Bioethics Corner
Programme Title: Bioethics: Pushing the frontiers of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) with biomedical ethics
Synopsis: Increasing access to Big Data and the use of AI and machine learning is changing the landscape of biomedical science and research, bringing with it challenges and ethical issues. As we harness the use of Big Data and AI in biomedical research, it is important that we understand and rationalise the emerging bioethical considerations and their impact on us and society. Join our expert panel for a discussion on bioethical issues relating to the use of Big Data and AI in human biomedical research.
Date: 29 October 2022 (Saturday)
Time: 3.00pm – 4:30pm
Venue: Possibility Room, Level 5, National Library Building
Dr Pavitra Krishnaswamy
Dr Pavitra Krishnaswamy is a Senior Scientist and Principal Investigator at the Machine Intellection Department and Deputy Head at Healthcare and MedTech Division at the Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R) at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore (member of BAC’s Big Data and AI Review Group). She leads Research and Development (R&D) efforts in AI for healthcare applications at I2R, A*STAR. Her research focuses on statistical machine learning and inference, interpretable machine learning, and predictive analytics for multimodal clinical data with a view to applications in clinical diagnostics and digital health. Her work has led to several publications, patent filings, and contributed new tools for medical imaging, clinical monitoring, and decision support applications.
Professor Julian Savulescu
Professor Julian Savulescu is the Chen Su Lan Professor in Medical Ethics at the National University of Singapore (NUS), where he is the Director of the Centre for Biomedical Ethics. An award-winning ethicist and moral philosopher, Professor Savulescu trained in neuroscience, medicine, and philosophy, and was the Uehiro Chair in Practical Ethics at the University of Oxford, where he founded the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics in 2003, before moving to NUS in 2022. He is also the co-Director of the Wellcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities. He is a Distinguished Visiting Professorial Fellow at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and Melbourne Law School. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences.
Dr Creighton Heaukulani
Dr Creighton Heaukulani is the Senior Data Scientist at the Ministry of Health (MOH) Office for Healthcare Transformation (MOHT). He leads the Digital Health Applications Team at MOHT, which aims to transform healthcare by leveraging innovative technologies. He obtained his PhD in Machine Learning from the University of Cambridge in 2015 and has since focused on the translation of machine learning science while also remaining active in fundamental machine learning research.
Dr Voo Teck Chuan
Dr Voo Teck Chuan is an Assistant Professor at the Centre for Biomedical Ethics at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at the National University of Singapore. He works on ethical issues in health care and policy and is a member of the Bioethics Advisory Committee in Singapore.
About the Moderator
Professor Patrick Tan Boon Oi
Professor Patrick Tan is the Executive Director of the Genome Institute of Singapore and a Professor at Duke-NUS Medical School Singapore. He is a Senior Principal Investigator at the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore and Executive Director of PRECISE (Precision Health Research Singapore), a business unit under the Ministry of Health coordinating the nation’s National Precision Medicine programme.