Today is the most amazing time in history to be a clinician scientist. Within reach are the whole genomes of our patients, precisely targeted therapies based on molecular signatures of their tumours, tracker devices to empower them to take personal health in their own hands, and the day when peta-bytes of hospital data will tell us which of our patients need even more attention than “just the standard of care”. I am an optimist. But as a realist, and a firm believer of “first a clinician, then a scientist”, our patients will always come first. Today’s amazing science and technology are here to serve our patients; who more important and better placed to leverage them for our patients than our clinician scientists.
“We won’t follow a path. We will go where there is no path, and design to make a trail behind us…”
Every advanced society needs its strong army of clinician-scientists. I can think of very few places on earth today better than Singapore to pursue this track of career. The environment, the support, the leadership, the investment, the camaraderie. We have a real chance to make that real difference, and not just for now, but for how diseases might be overcome forever.
It was once said, “Sometimes it is the people whom no one can imagine anything of, who do the things that no one can imagine.” A clinician-scientist career may be the one for you today.
Professor Roger Foo
Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Professor in Medicine
Director, Cardiovascular Disease Translational Research Programme, NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine
Senior Consultant, National University Heart Centre, NUHS