Dr Irwani Ibrahim is a Senior Consultant in the Emergency Medicine Department at NUH. She graduated with MBBS from the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and obtained her FRCS (A&E) from Edinburgh, UK. She went on to obtain a Master in Public Health from the University of Western Australia on an NMRC research fellowship.
In 2010, she was part of a 4-member team that was awarded the National Medical Excellence Award. This team pioneered the use of non-invasive ventilation (NIV) in the emergency department for patients with chronic obstructive lung disease. To date, NIV is a routine service adapted by all emergency departments in Singapore and the use has been expanded to many conditions causing respiratory failure. She continues to audit the service and teach NIV use to staff.
In her work, she continues to teach medical students and residents. She is an examiner in the emergency medicine specialist exit examinations, both in the clinical and the critical appraisal topic (CAT) sections.
Dr Irwani is an active researcher having authored over 30 publications. She has held the position of Deputy Program Director in the National University Hospital Residents Research Program and was awarded Best Research Mentor by the Wong Hock Boon Research Society in 2012.
She is a long-time advocate for evidence-based medicine and was appointed the Chairman of the Asia Pacific Evidenced-based Medicine and Nursing (APEBMN) since 2017. This workshop provides the skills required to appraise the ever-growing medical literature among healthcare professionals to make optimal decisions for ordering tests and treatment for patients.
Dr Irwani is interested in collaboration in the following areas: health services research that addresses the gap between the emergency department and primary care, the study of human factors in decision making and doctor-patient interaction.