Professor Lucy Wan Outstanding Pharmacist Award is the highest award PSS  give to Singapore pharmacists who have excelled in their area of pharmacy practice.  This year the award goes to :


Dr Andrea Kwa with Prof Lucy Wan

Citation for Dr Andrea Kwa   
                                                             
Education Hx

Andrea graduated from the National University of Singapore in 1996 and a few years later, she obtained a Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the Albany College of Pharmacy, in the US. She is a US board-certified pharmacotherapist with added qualifications in infectious disease.

Work Achievements

Currently, Andrea holds the title of Senior Principal Clinical Pharmacist at the Singapore General Hospital where she is held in high regards by doctors, nurses and fellow allied health colleagues for her expertise in infectious diseases practice and research. She heads the research committee for the pharmacy department and sits on the SGH/SingHealth Research Committee. She is also a member of the SGH evidence-based medicine committee.

Andrea has an excellent track record in the research arena, winning awards and international recognition for her work in antibiotic resistance in gram-negative bacilli, especially in polymyxin B, on which she has published numerous papers in several reputed journals. In 2008, she was invited to present at the prestigious Second World Conference on Magic Bullets, Erlich II 2008 that was held in Germany. Andrea is also a scientific reviewer for the Clinical Infectious Diseases, Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Cochrane Review, Expert Review of Anti-infective Therapy and SGH Proceedings. She has won numerous local research awards at the SGH Annual Scientific Meetings and the Singapore Pharmacy Congresses.

Behind these successes, we must not forget that the conduct of research did not come easy for Andrea. Notwithstanding the constraints of resources such as time & money, Andrea did not give up her passion for research and advancement of clinical practice. In late 2007, she successfully obtained an NMRC grant to run in-vitro experiments on multi-drug resistant bacteria and to date; lives have been saved through translation of the results from this research, to bedside practice. Since then, Andrea and her team have successfully obtained additional grants to continue their work. To date, she has 8 grants to her name with 10 more pending approval…all to the tune of $3 mill.

Apart from research, Andrea is also an FCCS-trained critical care pharmacist co-managing patients in the surgical intensive care unit with intensivists. She seeks to improve the clinical outcomes of the critically ill and in her desire to expand the knowledge base in these patients, she has co-authored several clinical papers in the critically ill population, ranging from elucidating predictors of patients’ mortality, to pharmacokinetic & dynamic studies of medications. Her appointment on the Pharmacy Specialist Accreditation Board Pro Tem Committee serves as evidence for the recognition given to her by her peers as a specialist in the areas of critical care and infectious disease. In 2006 Andrea set up the Antimicrobial Stewardship Programme at SGH, in collaboration with the ID physicians and microbiologists…a first in Singapore. And she has been appointed to the SGH Infection Control Committee and recently, the MOH National Antimicrobial Taskforce workgroup for Antimicrobial Utilization & Stewardship.

Last but not least, Andrea is an altruistic educator, always ready to share her knowledge with others around her. Her mentees will attest to her tireless teaching and guidance in clinical and professional areas of work. It is therefore not surprising that Andrea is a faculty member of the postgraduate allied health institute and the program director of the infectious diseases pharmacy residency program. In addition to these, she is frequently invited to speak on Infectious Disease topics. It is therefore notable that Andrea serves as a role model to young budding clinical and research pharmacists alike.

Andrea was a past PSS council member and a regular scientific reviewer for the Singapore Pharmacy Congress. In recognition of her leadership qualities and vast research cum training experience, Andrea was recently invited to be a mentor for the Duke-NUS Khoo Investigator Development Program which seeks to develop the careers of individuals who wish to become clinician scientists and aspire to become future leaders in clinical research.

We’re certainly very proud of what Andrea has achieved, not only for the pharmacy profession but for Healthcare in Singapore.