Clin Asst Prof Neo Hui Shan Shirlyn

Dr Shirlyn Neo graduated from the National University of Singapore in 2007 and obtained her MRCP (UK) and MMed (Internal Med) in 2010. She completed her specialist training in Palliative Medicine in National Cancer Centre Singa-pore (NCCS) in October 2015 and joined NCCS as an Associate Consultant in November 2015. She is currently working as a Senior Consultant at the NCCS in the Division of Supportive and Palliative Care.

Alongside clinical work, Dr Shirlyn Neo is also interested in the education of students, doctors, nurses and allied health. She participates as tutor in various courses and symposiums. She is also actively involved in research activities. She has various publications as first, second or last author; as well as grants as Principal Investigator including the Health Services Research New Investigator Award awarded by the National Medical Research Council in 2021, the National Medical Research Council Transition Award in 2023. She was also award with a philanthropic grant in 2024 by the Lien Foundation for her work in palliative care. Her over-arching research interest is that of discovering novel ways of provi-sion of supportive and palliative care- through investigating innovative care models, drugs and technology.

• Master of Clinical Investigation, National University of Singapore, 2023 
• M.Med Internal Medicine, Member Royal College of Physicians, 2010
• Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery (MBBS), National University of Singapore, 2007

• Palliative Medicine Lead, Eastern General Hospital, 2023 
• Honorary Secretary, Chapter of Palliative Medicine Physicians, 2023
• Program Evaluation Lead, Research, SingHealth Duke-NUS Supportive and Palliative Care Centre, 2023 
• Fellow, College of Physicians, Academy of Medicine, 2019 
• Member, Drug Delivery Workgroup, National Cancer Centre Singapore, 2022 
• Chair Research Track, Singapore Palliative Care Conference, 2023

• IPSQ SingHealth-Duke Nus Quality and Innovation day, Poster Excellence award, 2025 
• Team excellence awards 2024- team ICU avengers (reducing the length of stay of chronically ill patients in the cardiothoracic ICU) 
• 8th Singapore Palliative Care 2023 – Consolation poster prizes for two posters: understanding the learning needs of generalist oncology nurses towards supportive care in cancer; building a consensus on appropriate re-ferral criteria for advanced heart failure to specialist palliative care
• SingHealth Excellence Awards 2023- Distinguished Team award (ICU care rounds) 
• NMRC Seed Fund for Returned Fellows (2024) 
• NMRC Transition Award (2023) 
• NMRC Health Services research New Investigators Grant (2021) 
• Khoo Scholars Program (2021) 
• SingHealth Quality Service Award (Silver) (2018)

• Health Services Research – Innovative Models of Palliative Care delivery (including use of technology) 
• Clinical Trials (symptom control)

• Pilot study of the serious illness care program in Singapore (2024-ongoing) 
• Heartlanders: a tripartite early palliative care ecosystem for heart failure patients (2023- ongoing) 
• Timely interventions to enable and reach patients with heart failure and their caregivers with palliative care (2023-ongoing) 
• Cultural adaptation of the Serious Illness Conversation Guide for seriously ill patients in Singapore (2023-2024) 
• Pilot study of a fast acting fentanyl sublingual tablet (Abstral) for the prophylactic treatment of dyspnea in Asian cancer patients (2021-2023)
• Pilot Wait-list Randomized Controlled Trial of the ENABLE (Educate, Nurture, Advise, Before Life Ends) intervention for heart failure (HF) patients and their caregivers in Singapore (ENABLE-HF-SG) (2021-2022)
• Cultural adaptation of the ENABLE (Educate, Nurture, Advise Before Life ends) intervention for heart failure patients and caregivers (2020-2021)
• Perspectives of healthcare providers on an integrated oncology and palliative care model for inpatients with cancer- what are the core components that are important for an effective model of care? (2020-2021) 
• Providing proactive palliative care through the novel use of telemedicine for patients with advanced cancer (2020-2021) 
• Pilot study on the effectiveness, feasibility, and acceptability of a communications training module for cardiologists and cardiac surgeons- to improve communication skills and comfort with goals of care discussion (2019-2020) 
• Validity, Reliability, Feasibility and Acceptability of the Integrated Palliative Care Outcome Scale for identification of needs of Heart Failure patients (2019-2021) 
• Challenges and unmet supportive care needs of left ventricular assist device(LVAD) patients, LVAD el-igible patients and their caregivers (2018-2019) 
• Translation and validation of the 10 item FAMCARE to assess satisfaction of caregivers with care giv-en to advanced cancer patients (2017-2019)

• Neo SH, Yu K, Lee CF, Cheung YB. Interventions to enable and reach patients with heart failure, and their caregivers with palliative care (TIER-HF-PC): a study protocol of a two-armed parallel group, open label randomized controlled trial that evaluates the effectiveness of a tiered model of palliative care in tertiary cardiac institutes in Singapore. BMJ Open. 2025 Mar;27;15(3):e100581. 
• Neo SH, Mok N, Ng XH, Zhu X. Enhancing palliative care for advanced cancer patients: evaluating implementation and impact of a virtual nurse-led symptom monitoring and telehealth initiative. BMC Palliat Care. 2024 Oct 8;23(1):238. 
• Ke Y, Neo PSH, Yang GM, Neo SH, et al. Impact of a Multidisciplinary Supportive Care Model using distress screening at an Asian ambulatory cancer centre: a cluster randomized controlled trial. JCO Oncol Pract. 2024 Sep;20(9:1207-1218. 
• Lee SY, Tang SN, Phua GL, Yee CP, Neo SH. Adaptation of the serious illness conversation Guide to Singa-pore’s multicultural setting for patients with heart failure, renal failure or cancer. Palliat Med Rep. 2024 Mar 26;5(1):122-126. 
• Neo HS, Tan JT, Ng ES, Yoon SW. Facilitators and Barriers to implementation of a patient and staff reported outcome measure for screening of palliative concerns of patients with heart failure: a qualitative analysis using the consolidated framework for implementation research. Palliat Care Soc Pract. 2023; 17:26323524231241814 
• Koh JQ, Sim DK, Neo SH. Letter to the editor: educating patients with advanced heart failure through chat generative pretrained transformer and natural-language artificial intelligence: is now the time for it? J Palliat Med 2023 Jul;26(7):893-895. 
• Neo SH, Tan YT, Sim DKL, Ng ESL, Loh JKX, et al. Validity and Reliability of the Integrated Palliative Care Outcome Scale in Asian Heart Failure Patients. Palliat Med Rep. 2022 Nov 21;3(1):287-295 
• Lo JJ, Yoon S, Neo SH, et al. Elements of potentially inappropriate interventions and patient prognos-tic profiles at the end of life in cardiology: a qualitative analysis. J Palliat Med. 2023 May;26(5);700-703.
• Neo SH, Ku JSM, Tan JYT, Yoon S. Deciding to live (or not) with a left ventricular assist device- a thematic analysis exploring factors influencing the decision-making process in advanced heart failure patients in Singapore. Am J Hosp Palliat Care. 2023 Jan;40(1):27-33. 
• Broadhurst D, Cookie M, Srinam D, Barber L, Caccialanza R, Danielsen MB, Ebersold SL, Gorski L, Hirsch D, Lynch G, Neo SH, et al. International Consensus Recommendation Guidelines for Subcutaneous infusion of hydration and medication in adults: An e-delphi Consensus study. J Infus NUrs. 2023 Jul;46(4): 199-209 
• Lo JJ, Yoon S, Neo HS, Sim DK, Graves N. Elements of potentially inappropriate interventions and patient prognostic profiles at the end of life in cardiology: a qualitative analysis. J Palliat Med 2023 May;26(5):700-703 
• Yang GM, Shivanada S, Foo C, Neo SH, Ho S, Yoon SW. Experience of patients in a consult model versus an integrated Palliative care and medical oncology co rounding model: A qualitative study. J Palliat Med. 2022 Feb;25(2):291-295. 
• Tay J, Compton S, Phua G, Zhuang Q, Neo HS, et al. Perceptions of healthcare professionals towards pallia-tive care in internal medicine wards: a cross-sectional survey. BMC Palliat Care. 2021 Jun 30;20(1):101. (JIF: 3.1) 
• Mok N, Xia Z, Ng XH, Neo SH. Telemedicine for Palliative Care: Current and Future Challenges. Ann Acad Med Singap. 2021 Nov;50(11):862-864. (JIF 2.473) 
• Neo SH, Zhou JX, Wong GC, Mok NK, Yee AC, Phua GL. Teaching communication micro-skills to cardiologists managing seriously ill patients in Asia: Challenges Encountered Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic and Future Perspectives. Cureus. 2021 Nov 28;13(11):e19957.