“Once you put in the commitment to care for HIV patients, the conviction to continue is very strong. As a result, you have a very dedicated team, who will support one another and do almost everything to fight against discrimination and inequality,” affirmed Prof Leo, who continues to care for HIV patients, some of whom have been consulting her for the past 20 to 30 years. Providing that kind of long-term care for people in need requires commitment. It is also a practice that, like all the rest of the medical specialties, offers much scope for growth and development. “Medicine is a very challenging field… there are opportunities for individuals to develop and aspire to, and I will strongly encourage them to put extra effort to excel in their own field and own career.”

She is not a fan of multitasking or hurried decision-making. Her approach to work is to focus on one thing at a time. “I think it’s important to stay calm, and I prefer to think three times before acting on something. Keeping calm also allows you to analyse, crystallise thoughts and make better judgement calls. Thinking ahead also means having ready solutions so that you can respond and be flexible to situational changes.”

Click here to watch Prof Leo Yee Sin.

“The crux of chronic disease management is more than just giving medication. It is about ensuring that the children and families are able to achieve the outcomes they desire.”

The passion is apparent as she continues.

“If we don’t see the patient as the centre of why we are there, then it becomes just a job. You really have to put your patient first and ask yourself what you can do better.”

We turn the conversation to the annual camp that she has been organising for the children since the turn of this century, under the auspices of the Shaw-NKF-NUH Children’s Kidney Centre which she runs.

Her eyes light up.

“One of the things we do at the centre is that we run an annual camp every year. A three-day camp, like the school camps, we bring these children together so that we can run leadership programmes for them. At the same time, my doctors and nurses are there to ensure medical safety.”

She pauses and chuckles: “I am the chief advisor, the big busybody of the whole camp.”

She regales us with heartwarming stories of a patient whom she sees since he was 12, and who wants to pay it forward by helping to organise these camps.

“One of the things that we want to show them [the children] is that they are as good as their peers in school. This is important for their self-esteem,” adds Prof Yap, on why these camps are important to the children, who are on dialysis.

We ask her to talk about her hobbies, and she enthusiastically recounts how bird-watching became a part of her life.

“It was the fault of an English Paediatric nephrologist. I was a young lecturer at the university and he was coming here to to teach the Masters of Medicine in Paediatrics. I picked him up at the airport, and he asked, where can I go to watch birds? So I said, Jurong Bird Park.”

She laughs.

“He stared at me and said, I don’t mean the park. He explained to me what bird-watching was all about and I thought he was a bit nutty. In the end we went to Sungei Buloh. When I first saw the eyes of the birds through the binoculars, I couldn’t believe there were so many colours. It was really very pretty. I introduced it to my sister and we actually enjoyed seeing the different colours.”

Our conversation goes on for more than an hour, but Prof Yap shows no sign of impatience.

I have met many eminent and prolific clinicians in my short two years here. A few of them have left a deep impression on me, not so much for their outstanding achievements, but for their authenticity and humanity.

Prof Yap is one of them. Her genuine and compassionate demeanour bring so much hope to this world, and most certainly to her patients. Her passion and devotion to medicine is as infectious as it is inspirational.

I note that Prof Yap is from the class of 1978—the year I was born. I think most people would call this trivial or even silly, but somehow it brings a smile to my face that I have that little connection, no matter how small, to a role model like her.

Click here to watch Prof Yap Hui Kim.

With so much technology at our fingertips today, Dr Geh feels that to remain human, we need to have a lifeline to the humanities; this is especially so for doctors. To her, this is the best way to continually connect with those around us.

Referring to the humanities as a type of technology that allows the individual to more effectively tap on emotions to reach out to another, Dr Geh advocates for the greater inclusion of humanities into medical education. With research showing the patient benefits of alternative treatments like music therapy and art therapy, she believes that the administration of such therapies would also be beneficial to doctors and doctors-in-training.

This belief also stems from her appreciation for nature: she finds solace in being outdoors, gazing at the sky or trees.

As the President of Nature Society Singapore from 2000 to 2008 and a Nominated Member of Parliament from 2004 to 2006, Dr Geh championed environmental causes. Many questioned her impetus for doing so; she was a medical doctor after all. She explains it this way, “To me, there is absolutely no contradiction or discrepancy—I am not just treating the disease, I am looking at the patient holistically. You cannot have a healthy person in an unhealthy environment. (The natural environment) takes you out of yourself and restores something in you. I think it is very important for everyone’s mental, emotional, psychological and physical health.”

Photograph taken before implementation of COVID-19 safe distancing measures.

Click here to watch Dr Geh Min.

Setting up the programme was however, a challenging process which involved convincing several stakeholders. “We were often questioned on whether there was a need to embed nurses in the communities when people could just go to clinics and see a doctor. But it is important to understand that some elderly residents can be extremely vulnerable—they are prone to falls, take their medication incorrectly, not understand their condition or treatment, and even forget their medical appointments. That is why having community nurses is critical,” explained Dr Lim.

Being in the community allows nurses to better understand the living conditions of the residents, and they are then able to provide more effective care to help their patients manage their health conditions. Dr Lim once had an elderly patient whose health condition was exacerbated by the pet parrot he had at home. “When he visited the clinic, we could just tell him to remove the pet so that his condition can be well-controlled. But when we visited his home, we realised that the pet was his only companion. So we decided to instead teach him how to handle the pet’s feedings, as his parrot helps keep him going and motivates him to live for another day.”

These experiences have strengthened Dr Lim’s conviction of the importance of community nursing, She hopes the programme to eventually expand to the whole of Singapore, with nurses forming an integral part of the community, and are welcomed by residents as they go about their daily lives in the neighbourhoods.

Click here to watch Dr Lim Su Fee.

While a student at NUS Medicine, Dr Tham also served as the director of the Public Health Service (PHS) in 2017. The student-led PHS organises the largest annual student-run health screening in Singapore. That year, PHS served approximately 1,100 Singaporeans with its comprehensive free screening and follow-up programme.

Outside of Singapore, Dr Tham is also actively involved in medical missions and humanitarian work in places like Ipoh (Malaysia), Kathmandu (Nepal), Nagaland and Lucknow (India), and Sangkhlaburi (Thailand). She has worked with children with HIV, victims of sex trafficking, lepers rejected by their families, refugees and minority groups. She says she wants to serve in rural populations where basic healthcare and sanitation needs are unmet. That led her to head a team of students and doctors to the slums in Lucknow in 2018. During the trip, they worked with a local organisation to provide education, women’s empowerment programmes and healthcare for slum dwellers.

Photograph taken before implementation of COVID-19 safe distancing measures.

Dr Tham believes that such experiences are humbling. Rather than just training the mind, they train the heart to grow in compassion. She is constantly relearning that true healing does not necessarily take the form of medicine and surgery. It can be as simple as offering comfort and hope to a broken spirit.

In 2020, Dr Sarah Tham was awarded the Lee Hsien Loong Award for Outstanding All-Round Achievement. The award recognises outstanding academic and non-academic achievements of post-secondary students, particularly those who have made outstanding contributions to the community and demonstrated the spirit of innovation and enterprise.

Click here to watch Dr Sarah Tham.