The First Full Professor of Family Medicine Has Big Plans for Teaching and Research at NUS

With more than 30 years of experience in general practice and primary care research under her belt, the first full professor in the Division of Family Medicine – Professor Doris Young – has her mind set on improving the family medicine curriculum at NUS Medicine, in line with Singapore’s new focus on primary care.

Prof Young, who joined NUS Medicine in January 2017, plans to augment the small Family Medicine division by tapping on the expertise of practising family physicians to share their practical experiences through case discussions tutorials. In Prof Young’s opinion, the current curriculum is too hospital-centric and not ideal for the training of family doctors. She believes that having more family medicine or primary care-centric case discussions could help to fill this gap.

“What would be the family doctor’s role in managing diabetes better? What would be the family doctor’s role in managing depression? We should pursue it through the eyes of a family doctor, not through the eyes of a hospital specialist. Because if you have too many hospital specialists teaching our Family Medicine residents, they will focus on the diseases seen and managed in the hospitals, rather than those problems seen and managed by doctors working in the community. Family doctors need a different kind of skills. I want it (this set of skills) more embedded in the curriculum,” said Prof Young.

Patients in the community stem from different ethnic groups, backgrounds and economic status, and they may be dealing with other health problems apart from diabetes.

“As a family doctor, we need to look after this patient as a whole person. Instead of just biological, there is also the psychological aspect and social issues to deal with for having diabetes. As a good family doctor, we know this person over time. We know their stresses in life and the way they perceive and cope with illnesses,” she said.

Prof Young, who is also the Associate Dean for the China Programmes at the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences at University of Melbourne, believes that practitioners such as herself should go beyond imparting their practical knowledge to students and residents but also seek to inspire them as academic role models. She aims to share her career and life journey with the students in a bid to inspire them to take up academic family medicine as a career choice.

“The young doctors here need to see a role model, to see this is what a Professor of Family Medicine looks like — the teaching and research skills needed and the career paths taken to achieve that. Hopefully I could instill that passion in the next generation. And I would need to engage the whole Family Medicine community to work together,” she said.

Another area Prof Young wants to focus her energy on is birthing a new research culture on topical general practice-related research that the country needs. Prof Young, who was responsible for strengthening Australia and Hong Kong’s primary care research, believes that more research in family medicine would greatly complement Singapore’s family medicine’s academic standing.

“I want to call on all the family doctors here, those working in the polyclinics, Family Medicine Centres (FMC), private practices to form a primary care research network and say to them, let us all unite with nurses and allied health and build a research culture in family medicine in the primary care setting. We can do it. Research is not all just about dealing with animals, DNA, or laboratory-based research, there is good research that can be done in Family Medicine and primary care,” Prof Young said.

To build a research culture centred in family medicine, Prof Young said NUS Family Medicine should collaborate with established researchers from other Schools, such as