1. A very good afternoon to all of you. First, let me congratulate the students of Asian Medical Students' International (AMSA) for organising this conference. I would also like to extend a warm welcome to all our overseas guests who have come all the way to Singapore to join us. Thank you very much for being here with us.
2. Today, I have a simple hypothesis to share with all of you, to get you thinking as you start the conference. The practice of medicine is changing rapidly. Hence, the teaching and learning of medicine must change as rapidly, if not faster.
3. Why is medicine changing rapidly? There are at least three sets of driving forces. First, technology is changing rapidly. The practice of medicine will have to increasingly combine with the latest technology. These technologies include robotics and new discoveries in the biopharma scene. So, to understand and appreciate medicine, we will need to also appreciate technology.
4. In the past, many countries might be striving for mass access to medicine or medical care. Going forward, for many advanced countries, this will shift from mass access to mass customisation. Hence, in the future of medicine, you can have personalised medicine, where you're able to mass customise drugs and medicine to the individual. This will have profound implications on the practice of medicine.
5. The second driving force is data. Today, the practice of medicine will be combined with data. Today we have a huge amount of data - not just the information that's made available to both the medical practitioner and the patient, but there are also huge amounts of data that can be shared across the population and across different populations. This is the second driving force that will reshape the practice of medicine.
6. Last but not least, the third set of driving force I want to share today is that we are increasingly connected. The practice of medicine can no longer be done in isolation. The practice of medicine in one country will have an impact on another country. Through the recent pandemic, we might know how interconnected we are in this world. But there is another dimension of connectedness in the practice of medicine. That is that the practice of medicine will need to encompass aspects beyond just medical practices. For example, you will have to combine with the social and infrastructural aspects as well as many other dimensions in order for us to provide holistic care for individuals. I'll explain more in a while.
7. Thus, there are at least three sets of forces that will drive the advancement of medical practice in the coming years, and they will have profound consequences for the practice of medicine. The use of technology, the availability of data, and the increasing connectedness of medical practice with other dimensions of healthcare. If we agree with this simple hypothesis, then surely what follows must be the change in the learning and teaching of medicine. That applies not just to Singapore, but also across many countries. So, what are some of the changes that we can expect?
8. First and foremost, lifelong learning. This applies not just to the medical field. Whatever you have learned, whatever you can learn in your school is but the foundation. It has always been said that, as you keep practising your profession, you must keep learning and contributing. This is more so than ever before. If technology is changing so rapidly, if the practice of medicine is changing so rapidly, then we must have the humility to say that whatever we have learned in medical school is but the start. In fact, the day you graduate from medical school is the day you start the next chapter, the next lifelong chapter of learning throughout life.
9. The second change, which we hope to see in all of you, is that as you go through medical school, you will not just learn medicine narrowly. In fact, you will need various adjacent competencies even as you hone your skills in the medical field. For example, the ability to master the use of data will be increasingly important for you. The ability to search, to distil and discern the large amount of data made available to you and your generation will also be key. It is unlikely that you will live in a world where you have insufficient information. On the contrary, you, and your patients are likely to be inundated with information. The question of how to distil and discern this information will then become an indispensable part of your arsenal of skills.
10. But beyond just the practice of medicine, you also need to understand the broader aspects. For example, today, nobody will just want to understand the practice of acute care. You will also need to know how to work with the rest of the public health system in order to bring about the best quality of care possible for your patients. Increasingly, public health and personal care will be combined. Yet another dimension or another adjacent competency that all of you will need to understand is finance. The cost of health care at the individual or country level has been increasing rapidly. How to manage costs, and our finite resources, for the greatest good for our people will become an increasing challenge. You can no longer practise medicine without understanding the economics and the drivers behind public health care costs. So for this, I encourage all of you to stay curious and understand the adjacent competencies that will serve you well even as you hone your skills in the medical field.
11. The third thing I think that you will see changing will be this. The relationship between the patient and the medical practitioner will also likely change. Why so? I've just mentioned that the amount of information available to you may be increasingly similar to the amount of information available to the patient. Sometimes, the patient might think that they know even more than the doctors. The question is in this environment, how do you engender trust? Trust whereby the patients continue to rely on your judgment that you are doing the best for him or her. But trust requires a different form of relationship between a patient and doctor. It is not a one-off treatment relationship. Trust must be built up over time. This is why in Singapore, as we move on to Healthier SG, we want the relationship of trust to start from primary care all the way through acute care.
12. You can even make the argument that the more information, the more bewildering the world is, the greater the need for this trust between the patient and the medical professional. You will have to find new ways to constantly build and strengthen this trust in this information overload. So those are the challenges that are set out for you. But amidst all the challenges, I will conclude with one that will not, and I hope will never change.
13. That is the combination of ethics with the practice of medicine. In fact, this will become ever more important. With the many more tools available to you, you have to make the best judgment in the best interest of the patient and system. You have to be guided by strong moral and ethical standards in the practice of medicine. This is a hallmark of the profession. This must not change. While your duty is to keep exploring new ways to do things better, your duty is also to uphold the practice of medicine with the highest ethical standards, notwithstanding the bewildering array of technologies and information available.
14. So, on that note I wish you all the very best and I hope that I have gotten you thinking about the practice of medicine, not just for now, but for the future. Most importantly, we need to rethink how we teach and learn medicine beyond the conventional way that we have been doing it. It applies to Singapore as much as it applies to other countries. Thank you very much and I wish you a successful conference.