Clinician-Scientists in Public Sector Hospitals - Why and How
Clinician-Scientists in Public Sector Hospitals - Why and How
Clinician-Scientists in Public Sector Hospitals - Why and How
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Editorial
Introduction
The Singapore Biomedical Sciences (BMS) initiative was
launched in June 2000 to develop the Biomedical Sciences
cluster as one of the key pillars of Singapore economy.
Beginning in the late 2000s, the initiative evolved with
an increasing focus on establishing a critical mass of high
quality clinician scientists in the belief that this will facilitate
the successful implementation of the research initiatives. In
this editorial, I hope to share my thoughts in relation to 2
questions. Firstly, in an environment where we are short of
clinicians to deliver essential services in our public hospitals,
and a workforce that increasingly seeks work-life balance,
why should we encourage clinicians in public hospitals to
participate in activities that do not directly contribute to
patient care? Secondly, if we do want clinician scientists
in our public health institutions, how do we find them and
retain them?
My Personal Experience
I was trained as a physician in the United Kingdom and
returned to Singapore in 1991 where I received training,
first in internal medicine, then in endocrinology. I secured
my first grant from the National Medical Research Council
(NMRC) in 1997, as a registrar, and eventually, became
one of the 7 physicians to embark on the clinician scientist
scheme in the Singapore General Hospital. I committed
8 years to working on a number of research projects,
earning a PhD in the process. I like to think that I became
a pretty credible clinician scientist. In 2010, I accepted an
appointment as head of the Division of Endocrinology in
the National University Hospital. All of a sudden, I was
confronted with the very real issues of filling up rosters for
clinical duties, scheduling clinicians to teach and examine
under- and post-graduate students, shortening waiting
times for new appointments in the specialist outpatient
clinics, discharging patients early to ease the bed crunch,
all of which were far more urgent and pressing than the
need for research. Why should I encourage or even allow
the clinicians in my division to do research? Here are my
thoughts after 4 years as the head of endocrinology.
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