Health Sciences Authority appoints new CEO

SINGAPORE: The Health Sciences Authority (HSA) will have a new CEO from Dec 13, when Adjunct Associate Professor Raymond Chua Swee Boon officially takes on the role.
Adjunct Associate Professor Chua was appointed HSA’s CEO-designate on Thursday (Sep 12). 
He will succeed Dr Mimi Choong May Ling, who will be retiring from public service on Dec 13, MOH and HSA said in a joint press release on Thursday.
Adjunct Associate Professor Chua is currently the Deputy Director-General of Health (Health Regulation) at the Ministry of Health (MOH). In his role at MOH, he oversees the regulations of healthcare services and information in Singapore.
He will continue with this appointment alongside his new role as CEO of HSA “to better synergise regulatory operations and enforcement across healthcare services, information and products”, said MOH and HSA.
Adjunct Associate Professor Chua has led multiple regulatory initiatives at MOH, including the enactment and implementation of the Human Biomedical Research Act and Healthcare Services Act.
These Acts modernised the healthcare regulatory framework and enabled new modes of service delivery, the press release read.
He also established regulatory sandboxes for services such as telemedicine, mobile inpatient care-at-home and clinical genomic medicine services.
Adjunct Associate Professor Chua also played a key role during the COVID-19 pandemic, serving as Deputy Commander for the Medical Operations Taskforce and supporting COVID-19 clinical operations.
He is also an Adjunct Associate Professor with the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Centre of Regulatory Excellence at Duke-NUS.
Prior to his appointment in MOH, Adjunct Associate Professor Chua was the Group Director of the Health Products Regulation Group at HSA.
Expressing their appreciation to the outgoing CEO, MOH and HSA noted that Dr Choong was appointed as HSA’s chief executive on Jul 1, 2014.
“Over the past 10 years, she has led HSA to many significant achievements and has raised HSA’s international profile and standing in regulatory and scientific areas,” said MOH and HSA.
Under her leadership, HSA became one of the first three regulators to achieve the World Health Organization’s Listed Authority status in 2023 for its medicines regulatory system.
Internationally, Dr Choong expanded and strengthened collaborations with medicines regulators from Australia, Canada, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, accelerating Singapore’s access to novel and cost-effective medicines.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr Choong also led HSA’s comprehensive response efforts, which were crucial to Singapore’s management of the crisis.
Dr Choong was also behind the success of the National Blood Programme, deepening the partnership with the Singapore Red Cross to promote regular blood donation, and ensuring adequate and safe blood supply during the Zika virus threat in 2016 and the COVID-19 pandemic.