Dr Anita Lim Yee Nah

Dr Anita Lim is a rheumatologist with 30 years of experience across multiple health systems in the United Kingdom, Brunei and Singapore. Dr Lim graduated from the University of Glasgow in 1992. Her specialist training in Rheumatology was at the Addenbrooke’s Hospital Cambridge, and the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, United Kingdom, during which she actively contributed to the burgeoning exploration of biologic therapy for the inflammatory arthritides at the turn of the century.

Dr Lim joined National University Hospital, Singapore in 2005 while that hospital’s division of Rheumatology was in its infancy. She contributed to the initial Paediatric Rheumatology programs at National University Hospital and Kandang Kerbau Women and Children’s Hospital and continues to provide care in Rheumatology for adolescents. Dr Lim was involved with formulating guidelines for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis and psoriatic arthritis which informed the Singapore Ministry of Health’s subsidization of biologic and targeted therapy. She previously served in NUH’s hospital administration for a decade as Vice Chairman Medical Board and on the NUH Ethics Committee. She remains an active member of the National Rheumatology Exit Exam committee and visiting consultant at NUH.

We offer a full range of rheumatology services including joint injections, intravenous therapies, immunosuppressive treatments, disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs and biological therapies.

The on-site purpose-built infusion suite is staffed by trained infusion nurses who provide phlebotomy services hence patients need not go somewhere else for their blood tests.
Intravenous therapies including steroids, IVIG and biological therapies including anti TNF, rituximab to name a few, can be given without the need to admit the patient.

1) Juvenile Onset Spondylodiscitis – Magnetic resonance imaging changes following anti-TNF therapy. Rheumatology 2004; 43(11) Nov pp 1456-1458 A Y N Lim, K Gaffney, T Marshall.

2) Systemic Mastocytosis: a rare cause of osteoporosis and its response to bisphosphonate treatment. Annals of Rheumatic Diseases 2005 June, 64(6); 965-6 A Y N Lim, A J K Ostor, S Love, A J Crisp.

3) Anti-Tumour Necrosis Factor-alpha Therapy Associated Fatal exacerbations of Rheumatoid Arthritis Interstitial Lung Disease. J Rheum 2006; 33:1189-93. A J K Ostor, Edwin Chilvers, M Somerville, Anita Lim, Suzanne Lane, Adrian Crisp, David G I Scott.

4) Methotrexate induced pancytopenia: serious and under-reported? Our experience of 25 cases in 5 years. Rheumatology 2005; 44:1051-1055 May 18 A Y N Lim, K Gaffney, D G I Scott.

5) Patient Satisfaction with Rheumatology Practitioner Clinics: can we achieve concordance by meeting patients’ information needs and encouraging participatory decision making? Annals, Academy of Medicine, Singapore 2007; 36(2)110-114 A Y N Lim, C Ellis, A Brooksby, K Gaffney.

6) Catastrophic subarachnoid hemorrhage in eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis without asthma. Lee MX, Teng GG, Raju GC, Lim AY. Int J Rheum Dis 2015 May 11. doi: 10.1111/1756-185X.12594. PubMed PMID:25959920.

7) Consensus development on eligibility of government subsidisation of biologic disease modifying anti-rheumatic agents for treatment of ankylosing spondylitis: The Singapore experience. Cheung PP, Lahiri M, Teng GG, Lui NL, Chia FL, Koh DR, Koh WH, Ng SC, Suresh E, Leong KP, Lim AY, Thumboo J, Lau TC, Leong KH. Int J Rheum Dis. 2015 Jul 14. doi: 10.1111/1756-185X.12707. PubMed PMID: 26177789.

8) Integrating rheumatology care in the community: can shared care work? AYN Lim, CS Tan, BPL Low, TC Lau, TL Tan, LG Goh, GG Teng. Int J Integr Care. 2015 Aug 19;15:e031. eCollection 2015 Jul-Sep. PubMed PMID: 26312059; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4548709.

9) Singapore Chapter of Rheumatologists consensus statement on the eligibility for government subsidy of biologic disease modifying anti-rheumatic agents for the treatment of psoriatic arthritis. Lahiri M, Teng GG, Cheung PP, Suresh E, Chia FL, Lui NL, Koh DR, Koh WH, Leong KP, Lim AY, Ng SC, Thumboo J, Lau TC, Leong KH. Int J Rheum Dis. 2015 Sep 10. doi: 10.1111/1756-185X.12685.

10) Lung and gastrointestinal complications are leading causes of death in SCORE, a multi-ethnic Singapore systemic sclerosis cohort. Santosa A, Tan CS, Teng GG, Fong W, Lim A, Law WG, Chan G, Ng SC, Low A. Scand J Rheumatol. 2016 Nov; 45(6):499-506. PMID: 27232525

11) Validation of the UCLA Scleroderma Clinical Trial Consortium Gastrointestinal Tract Instrument 2.0 in English- and Chinese-speaking patients in a multi-ethnic Singapore systemic sclerosis cohort. Andrea Hsiu Ling Low, Xiaohui Xin, Weng Giap Law, Gim Gee Teng, Amelia Santosa, Anita Lim, Grace Chan, Swee Cheng Ng, Julian Thumboo. Clin Rheumatol (2017)36 Issue7, pp 1643–1648. doi:10.1007/s10067-016-3529-x

12) Factors influencing medication adherence in patients with gout: A descriptive correlational study. J Clin Nurs. 15 Jun 2017. Chua XHJ, Lim S, Lim FP, Lim YNA, He H-G, Teng GG. J Clin Nurs. 2017;00:1-10. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.13918

13) Cost-effectiveness of an adherence-enhancing intervention for gout based on real-world data. International Journal of Rheumatic Diseases DOI: 10.1111/1756-185X.13446 Lydia W Lin, GG Teng, Anita YN Lim, Joanne SY Yoong, Niklas Zethraeus, Hwee-Lin Wee.

14) Validity and Reliability of the gout impact scale in a multi-ethnic Asian population. Weixian Lee, GG Teng, KJ Chong, Ronnie VS TAN, A Santosa, Anita YN LIM, HL Wee. International Journal of Rheumatic Diseases

15) A double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trial of probiotics in systemic sclerosis associated gastrointestinal disease. Accepted in Seminars in Arthritis and Rheumatism.
Professor Julian Thumboo, Dr Amelia Santosa, Dr Benjamin Haaland, Ms Eliza Ho, Dr Paola Florez de Sessions, Dr Annie Hui Nee Law, Dr Anita Yee Nah Lim, Dr. Gim Gee Teng, Dr. Qiao Fan, Mr Collins Wenhan Chu, Dr Sven Petterssen, Dr Yu Tien Wang, Dr Andrea Hsiu Ling Low. Mortality and Hospitalization Outcomes of Interstitial Lung Disease and Pulmonary Hypertension in the Singapore Systemic Sclerosis Cohort. Semin Arthritis Rheum. 2019 Dec;49(3):411-419.

16) Burden and management of gout in a multi‑ethnic Asian cohort. Rheumatology International
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00296-019-04475-6. Rheumatology international. 2020 Jul;40(7):1029-35. Cheryl K. T. Chua, Peter P. Cheung, Amelia Santosa, Anita Y. N. Lim, Gim Gee Teng.

17) Update on recommendations for eligibility of government subsidisation of biologic disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs for the treatment of axial spondyloarthritis in Singapore. DOI: 10.1111/1756-185X.13744. International Journal of Rheumatic Diseases. 23(2), pp.165-173. 2020. Phang, K.F., Lahiri, M., Fong, W.W.S., Leong, K.H., Leung, Y.Y., Lim, A.Y.N., Lui, N.L., Manghani, M., Tan, T.C., Santosa, A. and Sriranganathan, M.K., 2020.

18) Singapore Chapter of Rheumatologists’ Updated Consensus Statement on the Eligibility for Government Subsidization of Biologic and Targeted Therapy for the Treatment of Psoriatic Arthritis. DOI: 10.1111/1756-185X.13754 International Journal of Rheumatic Diseases. 23(2), pp.153-164. 2020 Chua, C.K., Teng, G.G., Cheung, P.P., Fong, W.W.S., Leong, K.H., Leung, Y.Y., Lim, A.Y., Lui, N.L., Manghani, M., Santosa, A. and Sriranganathan, M.K

19) Singapore Chapter of Rheumatologists updated consensus statement on the eligibility for government subsidization of biologic and targeted-synthetic therapy for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. DOI: 10.1111/1756-185X.13762. International Journal of Rheumatic Diseases 23(2), pp.140-152. 2020 Leong, J.W.Y., Cheung, P.P., Dissanayake, S., Fong, W.W.S., Leong, K.H., Leung, Y.Y., Lim, A.Y.N., Lui, N.L., Manghani, M., Santosa, A. and Sriranganathan, M.K.

20) A nurse-led, rheumatologist-assisted telemedicine intervention for dose escalation of urate lowering therapy in gout. International Journal of Rheumatic Diseases 2020 Aug;23(9):1136-1144. Kee Fong Phang, Amelia Santosa, Bernadette P L Low, Pamela S H Tan, Zhi Wei Khong, Anita Y N Lim, Gim Gee Teng, Sen Hee Tay. doi: 10.1111/1756-185X.13855.

21) Recurrent Stent Thrombosis Secondary to Immunoglobulin G4-Related Disease. Canadian Journal of Cardiology. 2021 Jun 3. Koo CY, Lim AY, Chan KH.

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS: She served in NUH’s hospital administration for a decade as Vice Chairman Medical Board and on the NUH Ethics Committee. She remains an active member of the National Rheumatology Exit Exam committee, as well as a Visiting Consultant at NUH.

Dr Lim is adjunct staff at the NUS Centre for Biomedical Ethics where she teaches interprofessional
collaborative practice, professionalism, ethics and communications and explores the use of
narratives in drawing out the humanistic side of caring in the healthcare professions.

British Society of Rheumatology