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SINGAPORE: The National Medical Excellence Awards were given out to four doctors and one clinician scientist on Wednesday.
Asia may have a fast-growing ageing population, yet clinical studies on its elderly lag behind similar studies in the West.
Michael Chee, recipient of the National Outstanding Clinician Scientist Award, hopes to change that with his research work on characterising the aging Asian brain.
Prof Chee, principal investigator at Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore, said: "Unless you know what to expect, it is hard to say I can take X pill or take Y programme for intervention. So our strategy has been to collect the base data, on which you can then assess how possibly do Asians differ in their responses to X or Y intervention."
Another award recipient is John Wong, deputy chief executive of the National University Health System, who is being honoured for his contributions in clinical work and furthering research.
Prof Wong, who is also dean of the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and director of the National University Cancer Institute, formed the Cancer Therapeutics Research Group involving cancer centres in Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan back in 1997. Since then the group has carried out important research in cancer drug therapy.
Prof Wong returned to Singapore in 1992 from the Cornell Medical Centre, where he was their first Asian chief resident in medicine. He received the National Outstanding Clinician Award.
Three National Outstanding Clinician Mentor Awards were also given out to three individuals who had helped to train many doctors.
They are Chew Chong Lin, director of the Division of Graduate Dental Studies at the NUS Faculty of Dentistry; Low Poh Sim, who is chairman of the University Children's Medical Institute at the National University Hospital (NUH); and Ng Han Seong, who is chairman of the Medical Board at Singapore General Hospital.
But for some of them, their work extends beyond medical coaching.
Prof Ng said: "When we talk about people in leadership position, in administration and all that, that is really a big challenge. You find that there is a lot of reluctance for people, especially the doctors, to move into that position.
"So you really need to look for the right people. You have to bring them in, teach them and coach them on various aspects of administration. That is where a doctor becomes a leader."
A total of 28 nominations were received this year. There were no nominations from the private sector.
Also, unlike last year, team awards were not given out this year because the nominees did not satisfy the criteria.
Director of medical services at Singapore Health Ministry, K Satku, said: "They have great potential, but it could be that the work is not complete. We also need them to convert the outcomes of these programmes into some form of research activity, because one of the core elements across these awards is that some level of participation and contribution to research must exist."
The award recipients each received S$10,000 to further their work.
- CNA/yt
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