National Healthcare Group Annual Scientific Congress - Opening Address

09 Oct 2004

By Prof K Satkunanantham, Director of Medical Services

Venue: Raffles City Convention Centre

Opening Address By Prof K Satku, Director Of Medical Services, At The NHG Annual Scientific Congress On 9 Oct 2004

Mr Michael Lim, Chairman, National Healthcare Group;

Dr Lim Suet Wun, Chief Executive Officer, National Healthcare Group;

Dr Mahesh Choolani, Chairman of the Organising Committee, NHG Annual Scientific Congress 2004

Distinguished Guests, Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen

It gives me great pleasure to be here at the opening of the NHG Annual Scientific Congress 2004. I am delighted to be in the company of my clinical colleagues and friends.

As healthcare professionals, our primary aim is to heal and to care for the sick. Despite our extensive training there are still illnesses that baffle even the most experienced of us. There are treatments that don't work as well as they should and from time to time we find ourselves silently praying for a miracle.

In order to reduce our reliance on this silent prayer for a miracle, the least that we must do is stay abreast of advances in science and in particular how these advances can be employed for the benefit of our patients.

We, who practice medicine, have the responsibility to improve our own craft. "Only those who deliver care can in the end change care". This is why it is so important that we make time for scientific conferences and congresses, like this one. I am therefore gratified to see so many of my colleagues gathered here this morning.

Biotechnology and the life sciences are soaring to new heights in Singapore with more and more young people going into science as a profession.

However, increasing the number of scientists alone will not be sufficient to achieve the goals of medical research - we need our healthcare workers to be active participants as well.

I know that many of us cannot spare the time to engage directly in research, but congresses such as this give us the opportunity to ask the right question that sets research in motion and in the right direction. The right question is far more important then the right answer to the wrong question.

While most of us are content to keep abreast of clinically relevant research and help formulate the right research questions, there are an increasing number who undertake basic and downstream research. Their challenge is to work with our scientist colleagues to answer the questions raised.

In the course of the work when a discovery is made, or some innovative technology invented, one needs to establish if the discovery or innovation can be applied for medical use, and if so, whether the innovation can be used safely and effectively. Further research should investigate if the innovation is really worth putting into practice, considering the existing alternatives. Before making the innovation part of our daily practice, we need to also consider any economic, social or ethical implications it might have.

Simply put, the role of our clinician scientist is to translate clinical questions into research findings and in turn, better the outcomes for our patients - to bridge bedside and bench.

This journey from question to innovation to implementation is an arduous and rigorous one and deservedly so. We owe it to our patients to ensure that the care they receive will benefit them.

I therefore find the theme of the congress "Merging medicine with science: translation, prevention, cure" most apt and an appropriate call to our growing number of clinician scientists to focus their energies.

The Ministry of Health recognises the importance of this journey. We have provided more than $330 million in National Medical Research Council funding for medical research since 1994.

We understand that getting the research into practice is a necessary step in the journey. In 2000, we started the Health Service Development Programme to provide funding for pilot programmes that would try out and implement new and advanced health technologies.

Since then, more than another $100 million has been committed to enable our healthcare institutions to put into practice services and technologies that have through good research been shown to work.

We have always recognised that it makes good sense for some of our clinicians to do more than the occasional medical research. However it has been difficult to get the busy clinician to do so. I am pleased to inform you that earlier this year, we have launched a scheme to make it easier for this group of doctors.

The National Medical Research Council, in conjunction with A*STAR's Biomedical Research Council, has implemented a new award that will provide assistance to leading clinician-scientists to undertake translational research to bridge bench and bedside. The Clinician-Scientist Investigator (or CSI) award is aimed at outstanding clinician-scientists with a record of research excellence and who show good potential to become research leaders.

The award is designed to support the career development of these clinician-scientists, and promote clinical and translational research in Singapore. It will allow CSIs to spend at least 6 out of the 10 work sessions per week, conducting research and developing their research careers.

The acronym, CSI, brings to mind the popular television series, where it stands for "crime scene investigation". The association is purely coincidental, but I think that it is appropriate.

Like the characters in the series, our CSIs will be using the latest scientific methods in their investigations, and I expect that our CSIs will display the same level of tenacity in seeking out the truth through their research.

Besides the CSI, I know there will be many of us who will participate in some research. Having performed research, it is important that you share it with others, if it is to have any impact.

In this respect, I must congratulate the organisers of this congress. Since the previous NHG Annual Scientific Congress, abstracts of papers presented at the congress have been published in a special supplement of the Annals of the Academy of Medicine, Singapore. What sets this apart from other publications of conference abstracts is the special feature, the extended abstract. Of the more than four hundred and fifty abstracts to be presented at this congress, the best 10% will be selected and published as two-to-three page short articles. These extended abstracts undergo peer-review, and are useful in providing more details than the usual four-to-a-page abstracts. The reader is able to assess the study in greater detail and learn more from it. Publication of your study in this format is a reflection of the quality of your work and I hope you will strive to achieve this honour.

In addition to the papers and lectures that will be delivered at the congress, I note that there will also be 3 book launches, "The Asian Skin - A Reference Colour Atlas of Dermatology", a "Guide to the Essentials in Emergency Medicine", and "Guidelines on Care of the Menopausal Woman". These are yet more examples of ways in which research can be translated into usable references for the clinician on the ground.

In this respect I would like to add that the Ministry has published almost 40 clinical practice guidelines. These guidelines summarise the best evidence and make recommendations for management. In order that the guidelines remain up to date, they are also regularly reviewed and revised.

I would like to thank all the clinical experts who have contributed to these guidelines. It is through your efforts, that you provide an important avenue to enable your fellow practitioners to implement medical research.

Finally I must add my own perspective on research. Being involved in research has enabled me to critically appraise new discoveries and inventions in my specialty. Research yields data, and if we have asked the right question the data yields information.

The art in research is to see knowledge in the information; The art in medicine is to translate this knowledge to care and thereby give science a soul.

On that note, I wish you all a great learning experience and an enjoyable congress. Thank You.