Rheumatology Senior Residency Programme

About the Programme

Rheumatology sits at a unique intersection in medicine. It rewards the broad-based clinical thinking of a well-trained physician, demands the analytic rigour to make sense of complex multi-system disease, and offers the privilege of long-term partnerships with patients.

At Singapore General Hospital (SGH) Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, our philosophy is to train rheumatologists who embody all of this — well-rounded next generation clinicians who reason broadly across medicine, think deeply and analytically about rheumatic disease, and bring that same rigour to their research, teaching, and other professional work.

We are committed to training the next generation of doctors to be patient-centric and academically inclined Rheumatologists. With our dedicated Faculty members, one-stop Autoimmunity and Rheumatology Centre and vast clinical and research resources, we are focused on providing you with the best learning experience needed to fully realise your potential to be a skilled practitioner in rheumatic diseases and a scholar who upholds academic rigor. 

As a Rheumatology Senior Resident, you will be working in the Rheumatology & Immunology department of Singapore’s largest tertiary teaching hospital. Our mission is to deliver state-of-the-art, cost-effective, holistic care for patients and to foster a collegial environment for learning, teaching and research. With over 20,000 ambulatory visits a year, a wide spectrum of rheumatological and immunological conditions await you to participate in the management of these patients and develop your clinical acumen in both medicine and autoimmune diseases.

Eligibility criteria include passing the MRCP or M.Med (Internal Medicine), as well as PD certification of completion of R3 in Internal Medicine Residency.

Message from the Programme Director

Welcome, and thank you for considering Rheumatology as your specialty.

The training programme is carefully curated to bridge the gap between medical excellence and specialised rheumatology expertise. Central to our philosophy is a simple, unwavering principle: putting patients at the heart of all we do. To do this well, our Senior Residents are grounded in a broad clinical foundation. We believe that a great rheumatologist is first a great physician; therefore, our curriculum emphasizes broad clinical skills and multidisciplinary exposure.

Our training is a well-structured ACGME-I accredited Rheumatology Senior Residency Programme. Faculty are passionate, experienced and dedicated to helping our Senior Residents succeed through close supervision and timely feedback. Many patients visit our Autoimmunity & Rheumatology Centre (ARC). The ARC is the first one-stop centre in the region dedicated to complex rheumatic and autoimmune disorders, and an Asia Pacific League of Associations for Rheumatology (APLAR) Centre of Excellence. As a Senior Resident, you will have the opportunity to learn in ARC’s General Rheumatology, subspecialty clinics spanning Early Arthritis clinic, Paediatrics-Adult Transition Care clinics, Systemic Sclerosis Clinic, Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Clinic, Spondyloarthritis Clinic, Multidisciplinary Pulmonary Hypertension Clinic, Combined Psoriatic Arthritic and Psoriasis Clinic, Combined Rheumatology-Obstetrics Clinic, Combined Rheumatology-Uveitis Clinic, Combined Interstitial Lung Disease clinic, and musculoskeletal ultrasound. Besides managing inpatients and outpatients with complex multi-system disease, you will learn alongside experts from across SGH's medical and surgical specialties. A posting at KK Women's and Children's Hospital extends your training into paediatric rheumatology, while electives in orthopaedics and sports medicine, rehabilitation, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, podiatry, immunodermatology, and laboratory medicine round out the clinical picture.

For those drawn to research, our department offers a robust, nurturing environment to develop the research acumen necessary to translate bench-side discoveries to bedside care. Clinician Scientist Residents enjoy structured mentorship, protected research time to develop the analytic depth to translate clinical questions into meaningful science. Project funding through the Reverie Rheumatology Research Fund (RRRF), together with our partnership with Duke-NUS Medical School, will further support your journey.

I take on this role committed to listening — to our residents, our faculty, and our patients — and to refining the programme so that each cohort is better supported than the last. If you share our belief that rheumatologists should be broad in clinical thinking, deep in analysis, and unwavering in their focus on patients, we would be glad to have you train with us.

Dr Tan Tze Chin
Programme Director, Rheumatology Senior Residency ProgrammeConsultant, Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Singapore General Hospital

Why Choose Rheumatology?

Patients at the Heart of All We Do

Rheumatic diseases are chronic, multi-system, and deeply affecting — they shape how patients work, move, parent, and live. Caring for them well means caring for the whole person over many years, and Rheumatology offers the depth of this relationship. Everything in our programme — the rotations, the teaching, the research training — is built around this commitment, and you will see it modelled by faculty in every clinic, ward round, and multidisciplinary meeting.

Passionate and Dedicated Faculty

Our Faculty are experienced clinicians, educators, and researchers who genuinely enjoy teaching. You will be supervised closely, given timely feedback, and encouraged to grow your own clinical expertise. We prioritize high-quality supervision that respects your professional autonomy while providing the safety net of experienced faculty. Our leadership is committed to fostering a culture of continuous feedback, ensuring that your training experience is as dynamic and evolving as the specialty itself.

Comprehensive Clinical Training

Our Autoimmunity and Rheumatology Centre (ARC) — an APLAR Centre of Excellence — was designed with residents in mind, with supervisors close at hand and dedicated tutorial space. You will rotate through general rheumatology, a wide range of subspecialty clinics, musculoskeletal ultrasound, and a busy inpatient service that exposes you to the most complex multi-system disease. Postings at KK Women's and Children's Hospital and at the Department of Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine, together with electives in rehabilitation, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, podiatry, immunodermatology, and laboratory medicine, ensure that your training is genuinely well-rounded.

A Programme That Builds Analytic Depth and Research Skills

Rheumatology rewards careful, analytic thinkers. Our weekly grand ward rounds, journal clubs, tutorials, departmental lectures, and the bi-weekly National Core Rheumatology Series — attended together with peers from other hospitals — train you to reason rigorously through ambiguity. For those pursuing the Clinician Scientist track, we are an accredited training site, offering structured mentorship, protected research time, and pathways to the Master of Clinical Investigation (MCI) or PhD qualification. The Reverie Rheumatology Research Fund (RRRF) supports project funding, and our partnership with Duke-NUS Medical School and other research institutions opens further academic opportunities.

Your Career Prospects & Development

On completing the programme, our graduates go on to thrive as excellent clinicians, clinician educators, clinician scientists, quality improvement leaders, and clinician innovators harnessing technology and artificial intelligence. Each of these paths is valued and supported — because each contributes to better care for our patients, which remains the purpose behind everything we do.