It’s a Sweet 16 year for Johns Hopkins Singapore, the first global venture of Johns Hopkins Medicine. Johns Hopkins began its partnership with the Singapore government’s National Healthcare Group in 1999. At that time, the goal was to establish a cancer center in Singapore’s National University Hospital. The joint venture answered a local need for advanced oncology services and the question of how to connect interested Johns Hopkins researchers with patients who have cancers endemic to that part of the world, such as liver and nasopharyngeal cancers.

Now, with a staff of 115 from nearly a dozen countries, the organization has become a hub for medical research, education and cancer treatment. “It’s grown from a clinical trials unit to a leading cancer center in Southeast Asia,” says Johns Hopkins Singapore CEO Lawrence Patrick.

Johns Hopkins Singapore’s scientists have conducted more than 200 clinical trials—32 are active now—and published more than 100 papers considering subjects as diverse as the economics of cancer treatments and the efficacy of a certain drug on treating lung cancer in Indian patients.

Education has emerged as an equal priority. Since the founding of a residency program for Johns Hopkins medical residents in 2006, Johns Hopkins Singapore now offers 10 accredited nursing and clinical education programs for future practitioners. More than 120 residents have performed rotations there.

In 2004, Johns Hopkins Singapore became that nation’s first private medical center to achieve Joint Commission International accreditation. The next year, it relocated to Tan Tock Seng Hospital to meet the demand for inpatient care and expanded its clinical services. Now, outpatient visits hover near 30,000 per year, with many patients coming from beyond Singapore’s borders.

The organization’s ties to Johns Hopkins Medicine remain palpable to Kate Waldeisen, a project administrator at Johns Hopkins Medicine International who spent two months at Johns Hopkins Singapore during her administrative residency. “It’s like we integrated a microcosm of Johns Hopkins into a public health system halfway around the world,” she says.