27 March 2008

Caring enough to make an impact

	MEDICAL EXCELLENCE: The winners with Health Minister, Mr Khaw Boon Wan.

They work ceaselessly, contributing significantly to clinical work, research and mentoring younger clinicians. The Ministry of Health recently paid tributes to four such individuals as well as two teams, presenting them with the inaugural National Medical Excellence Awards.

The winners include Prof Lee Eng Hin, Director, Division of Graduate Medical Studies, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, NUS; Prof Soo Khee Chee, Vice Dean, Duke-NUS Medical School; Prof Yap Hui Kim, NUS Department of Paediatrics; and Prof Donald Tan Tiang Hwee, NUS Department of Ophthalmology.

Prof Lee who is also Executive Director of the Biomedical Research Council and Senior Consultant, Orthopaedic Surgery, NUH as well as KK Women's and Children's Hospital, won the National Outstanding Clinician Mentor Award. When he was Dean of NUS Medical School, he oversaw the curriculum review of the undergraduate training programme and further developed the MBBS-PhD programme in NUS and the elective research module for undergraduates. He has mentored many young clinicians, many of whom went on to become outstanding clinician scientists in their areas of work. 

Prof Soo who also received the National Outstanding Clinician Mentor Award, is the founding Director for the National Cancer Centre of Singapore which has developed a wide range of coordinated and integrated programmes to support academic healthcare, with innovative therapies and quality care for patients, advanced education services to healthcare professionals and the community. A dynamic teacher, he has personally taken under his wing, a number of oncology surgeons as well as clinician scientists who are now making their own mark in Singapore.

Prof Yap, Head and Senior Consultant, Division of Paediatric Nephrology, Immunology and Urology at the Children's Medical Institute, NUH, is known for her pioneering work in Paediatric Nephrology. Instrumental in starting and developing the National Paediatric Renal Replacement Programme in 1988, she is an internationally recognised expert in this field. She won the National Outstanding Clinician Award.

Prof Tan, Director of the Singapore Eye Institute and Deputy Director of the Singapore National Eye Centre, also heads the Department of Ophthalmology at NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. He has spearheaded several novel surgical techniques and his contributions to the field of corneal transplantation have led to Singapore being widely recognised as a leading international centre for corneal transplantation surgery and innovative research. He was awarded the National Outstanding Clinician Scientist Award.