Advancing Patient Engagement and Partnership
From Social Prescribing to Advocacy Across the Healthcare Cluster
A webinar hosted by WONCA's Working Party on Quality and Safety
In today’s evolving healthcare landscape, patient engagement is no longer a peripheral concern—it is central to achieving better health outcomes, enhancing care experiences, and ensuring system sustainability. This session explores the continuum of patient engagement across the healthcare cluster, from downstream initiatives such as social prescribing—which addresses social determinants of health—to upstream strategies that empower patients as advocates and partners in care design, delivery, and governance.
Drawing on practical examples from and the ESTHER Network Singapore and the SingHealth Patient Advocacy Network (SPAN), the talk will highlight how integrated health systems, as well as community & primary care, can foster meaningful partnerships with patients and caregivers, based on their activation levels. SPAN exemplifies co-creation and co-leadership in quality improvement, while the ESTHER Network provides a person-centred framework supported by trained ESTHER Coaches and a system-level approach to social prescribing that emphasizes collaboration and individual needs.
Participants will gain insights into building supportive structures for patient activation, co-developing care pathways, and embedding patient voices in service redesign, quality improvement, and policy development. This integrated approach not only humanizes care but also strengthens resilience, inclusivity, and equity across the healthcare ecosystem.
Wenesday, 20 August, 11am–12pm UTC
- Singapore: 7pm–8pm
- Sydney: 9pm–10pm
- London: 12pm–1pm
- Accra: 11am–12pm
- Buenos Aires: 8am–9am
Click here to register for the session
Speakers:
Professor TAN Kok Hian
Group Director & Senior Associate Dean, SingHealth Duke-NUS Institute for Patient Safety and Quality;
Senior Consultant in Maternal Fetal Medicine in KK Women’s & Children’s Hospital, Singapore
Prof KH Tan is a senior consultant in maternal fetal medicine in KK Women’s & Children’s Hospital. He initiated the SingHealth Patient Advocacy Network (SPAN) in 2017 and currently serves as Advisor. He is Cofounder and Director, Alliance of Patients’ Organizations Singapore (APOS) and a member of SingHealth Centre for Person-Centred Care (CPCC) Executive Committee. He is Program Director of Duke-NUS Medical School Graduate Certificate in Patient Safety & Healthcare Quality; and NUS Graduate Diploma and NUS Master’s in Patient Safety & Healthcare Quality since 2023. He is Cluster Deployment Leader (CDL) for the Singapore’s Ensure Safer Systems (ESS) in SingHealth.
Prof Tan is a member of the expert group on Patient Safety for World Health Organization since 2018 and has served as a technical consultant in patient safety and healthcare quality. He is actively involved in the WHO Global Patient Safety Action Plan 2021-2030 (GPSAP) which promotes patient engagement and partnership as a key objective. He is the Lead for Global Action for Leaders & Learning Organisations on Patient Safety (GALLOPS) and the Lead chair for International Advisory Group (IAG) of the Global Knowledge Sharing Platform for Patient Safety (GKPS) for global sharing of best practices (www.gkps.net).
He received the WHO United Arab Emirates (WHO-UAE) Health Foundation Prize 2009 as Integrated Perinatal Care Project Team Leader for KKH in 2009 and the Singapore Inaugural National Outstanding Clinical Quality Activist Award in 2010.
Ms Joy Tan
Head Coordinator of the ESTHER Network Singapore & Person-Centred Care at Division of Population Health & Integrated Care (PHIC), Singapore General Hospital (SGH);
Senior Principal Physiotherapist, SGH’s Department of Physiotherapy.
Joy Tan is the Head Coordinator of the ESTHER Network Singapore and Person-Centred Care at Division of Population Health & Integrated Care (PHIC), Singapore General Hospital (SGH). A Senior Principal Physiotherapist with nearly two decades of experience, she leads the Acute Spine and Spinal Cord Injury Service and serves as Chief of Quality Assurance and Improvement at SGH’s Department of Physiotherapy.
Since 2016, SingHealth has embraced the model of person-centred care, where improvements start with "What matters to Esther?". 'Esther' can be a patient with complex care needs, a caregiver or healthcare staff seeking better ways to serve. The ESTHER Network, anchored in SGH and scaled across SingHealth, has trained over 400 ESTHER Coaches and implemented more than 150 person-centred improvements—including co-designed discharge plans and enhanced care transitions.
As co-lead of the ESTHER Network’s education and coaching efforts, Joy has been instrumental in embedding the “What matters to Esther?” philosophy across acute, community, and primary care. She developed the QI-ESTHER Workshop for Physiotherapy Residents, merging quality improvement (QI) and person-centred improvement through ESTHER approach to achieve better patient care and outcomes. Joy's expertise extends beyond SGH, to train healthcare professionals, allied health undergraduates, and community partners in QI-ESTHER principles. As a certified QI and ESTHER Coach, Joy has coached or facilitated over 60 ESTHER and Improvement projects within Physiotherapy, SGH and across institutions.
Through her roles at the ESTHER Network Singapore and SingHealth Centre for Person-Centred Care, she supports system-wide efforts to improve care experiences and outcomes, particularly for patients with complex needs. Her work demonstrates how person-centred improvement approaches like ESTHER can be adapted to primary care and family medicine contexts to enhance safety and quality in complex systems. Joy is also Associate Faculty at the Singapore Institute of Technology, Assistant Program Director for SGH’s Physiotherapy Residency in Acute Orthopaedics and contributes to peer-reviewed journals such as Spine and NASSJ.
Joy holds a Master of Science in Clinical Physiotherapy from Curtin University, where she was awarded the Mona Twomey Prize for best postgraduate research. In recognition of her contributions, she received the SingHealth GCEO Excellence Award (2023) and the NHIP Best Adopter Medal (2024) for her team’s work on value-based introduction of exoskeletons in gait rehabilitation.
Mr Ellil Mathiyan Lakshmanan
Mentor & Co-Chair Designate the SingHealth Patient Advocacy Network (SPAN);
Co founder and President of the Ostomy Association of Singapore (OAS) and the Interim Vice President of the Asia–South Pacific Ostomy Association (ASPOA).
Ellil Mathiyan Lakshmanan, PBM (COVID 19) is a passionate patient advocate, educator, and mentor, serving in key roles within the SingHealth Patient Advocacy Network (SPAN). As the Co-Chair Designate of SPAN@HQ, and mentor across SPAN@CGH, SPAN@SGH, and SPAN@DEM, he works closely with patients, families, and healthcare teams to embed patient perspectives into clinical practice, policy, and medical education.
A double cancer survivor, Ellil brings lived experience and deep insight to his work. He is the Co founder and President of the Ostomy Association of Singapore (OAS) and the Interim Vice President of the Asia–South Pacific Ostomy Association (ASPOA). In these roles, he advocates for improved patient support, patient centred care, and access to quality medical services across institutions and borders.
Ellil serves as a patient partner with the LKC School of Medicine Office of Patient Engagement (OPEN) and the Agency for Care Effectiveness (ACE), contributes to national and international working groups, and sits on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Patient Safety and Healthcare Quality (JPSHQ). A Fellow of the European Patients’ Academy (EUPATI), he is an educator and facilitator with certifications in Adult Education and Training (ACTA), CELTA, and SPOT on Facilitation.
A respected patient expert and educator, Ellil has been recognised with numerous national accolades, including the President’s Volunteerism and Philanthropy Award 2024 (People of Good), the Public Service Medal (COVID 19), and the Singapore Patient Advocate Award. Through patient advocacy, collaboration, and education, he strives to empower patients, support families, and enable healthcare professionals to deliver safer, more patient centred care.
Resources:
Host:
Prof. Jose M (Chema) Valderas, Chair of WONCA Working Party on Quality and Safety
Prof. Medicine and Director, Centre for Research in Health System Performance (CRiHSP)
Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine
National University of Singapore
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