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SINGAPORE: Singapore is set to promote clinical research in public hospitals to benefit healthcare.
Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan made this point at the inaugural National Medical Excellence Awards presentation ceremony on Wednesday.
Clinical research in public hospitals had never been a priority of the Health Ministry (MOH) as the focus was on affordable healthcare.
Mr Khaw said: "There was an important consideration which underpinned such a tight-fisted policy in MOH. The concern was that clinical research would lead to more costly treatment options. This would increase healthcare costs and would also fan up public expectations for esoteric treatments which our society might not be prepared to pay."
But things changed two years ago when the Health Ministry obtained Cabinet approval for such clinical research.
Mr Khaw said that a decade of developing life sciences had laid a strong foundation for biomedical research in Singapore, but there is still a need to bridge the gap between 'bench and bed'.
And in turning research into better treatment protocols and drugs, partnerships with local hospitals should be promoted.
The health minister also explained that clinical research can also help draw and retain top medical talent, grow Singapore's status as a medical hub and manage medical inflation by more effective treatments.
The government has committed S$1.5 billion over five years to support research. Mr Khaw said research should be focused on areas which will deliver concrete results for better healthcare.
There must also be proper competitive peer review and no duplication of resources.
He said: "We are more likely to succeed if we focus on common conditions that affect a large number of our people such as diabetes and myopia. Besides doing clinical trials on new drugs, we should also look at the effectiveness of treatment with different combinations of existing drugs and the effectiveness of behavioural modification strategies for different segments of our population. Such studies may seem mundane but they can potentially benefit a large number of our patients."
Mr Khaw has called on hospital clusters to reform their strategies to take full advantage of this policy change.
On a separate note, the health minister also spoke on the recent controversy over aesthetic treatments.
Speaking on the difficulty of regulating the beauty business, he said some wanted MOH to do more while others did not want it to interfere.
Nonetheless, if an accident should happen, all fingers will point to the ministry for not regulating the industry more tightly.
Mr Khaw said the most practical approach is to regulate tightly where safety can be compromised and to leave the rest to professional bodies to self-regulate.
- CNA/so
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