Speech by Minister Chan Chun Sing at the NTU Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine Homecoming

1.A very good evening to the Lee Kong Chian (LKC) family, and all the friends and supporters of LKC. First, I would like to join Chuan Poh in thanking all of you for not just being here today, but for your steadfast support over all these years. Without your support, without your commitment, in particular the sponsors, the staff, the faculty, and many other people who are too many to name tonight, LKC will not be what it is today. So, thank you all for your steadfast contributions to LKC.

2.Second, tonight, I would also like to place on record our immense gratitude to Imperial College London (Imperial) for helping us to establish the foundation of LKC. When we chose to partner Imperial more than 10 years ago, we knew that we were not looking just to replicate what Imperial has done. We were in fact, hoping to leverage on Imperial's strengths, and at the same time, work with Imperial to create something new, something better. I think to a great extent, we have done that. But having said that, our job is not done. In this new chapter, LKC will have to forge its own path. At the same time, LKC will move to the next chapter of its relationship with Imperial and other renowned universities and Schools of Medicine around the world. This is because we want LKC to truly establish its own identity by creating a niche role for itself in many Schools of Medicine all around the world. I think with the foundation established with Imperial, we have the ingredients to be able to do that in due course.

3.Now having said that, the practice of medicine is evolving rapidly. So tonight, I would like to urge the LKC family to focus on three sets of challenges and yet, to remain true to three things that we hold dear to our heart. First, let me talk about the challenges. The first challenge for LKC and for the practice of medicine today and going forward is that no longer can the practice of medicine be just about medicine. Today, the practice of medicine has to be combined with technology that includes artificial intelligence, robotics, biopharma and so forth. This is my first wish for the new LKC - that the LKC graduate will not just be proficient in the practice of medicine, but the LKC graduate will be proficient in combining the best of medicine and frontier medicine with frontier technological progress. This will carve out a niche for LKC students to stand amongst the crowd, and it is an ongoing challenge that we must keep working on - to combine the best of medicine in its traditional form with the best and latest frontier technologies that we can harness in the service of medicine.

4.Next, the practice of medicine will also change with the increasing use of data. In today's practice of medicine, increasingly we are talking about the "Batch of One", where medicine can be customised down to the individual. This is no longer some science fiction. This is already happening. But in order for us to master the medicine for one, we will need to combine the practice of medicine with the mastery of data and data management. Hence, this is again a second area which I hope the graduates of LKC will be able to distinguish itself in - not just as a pure practitioner of medicine, but a practitioner of medicine combined with technology and data.

5.Third, and this is my personal challenge to the school. In a traditional school and education system, particularly in medicine, we are never far from the trilemma of education - which is that how can we achieve quality, speed and affordability? In most traditional education systems, it is a trilemma because chances are that you can have two out of the three but seldom three out of three. If you have quality and speed, it is unlikely to be cheap or affordable. If you have quality and it's affordable, it's unlikely to be fast. If you are fast and affordable, chances are that your quality is not very good.

6.But today, I believe we are at the cusp of change where we can leverage on the latest learning technologies and pedagogies to break this trilemma and achieve in education, especially medical education, quality, speed and affordability. This is something I look forward to having LKC rise to the challenge because you will require the precision of what the latest education technology can allow us to do. You will require us to appreciate the latest technology and the latest data-driven practices and processes. So, these are my three simple wishes for LKC as you go on to the next chapter. To embrace technology, combine the best of technology with the best of medicine. To embrace data, combine the best of data with the practice of medicine, where you can deliver the medicine for the "Batch of One". And most importantly, to break the trilemma of medical education where we want to achieve quality, speed and affordability. We believe if anybody can do it, we in Singapore must be one of them and LKC will have this responsibility on its shoulder.

7.Now, those are the three things that will change. Yet I hope that there are three things that will never change in LKC. First, I hope that every LKC graduate will in some sense, never graduate, if graduation means departing from LKC. I hope that every LKC graduate will have a lifelong relationship with LKC because in the practice of medicine, more than ever, it is about lifelong learning. Whatever LKC can equip our students, or no matter how well LKC can equip our students, it is but the foundation upon which they will have to keep learning, keep exploring and keep discovering. So, my first wish for LKC not to change is to have the sense of continuous lifelong learning in all our graduates.

8.Second, as the practice of medicine becomes more sophisticated and more complex, I hope the trust between the medical professional and the patient will never change. The more complex the practice of medicine be, the deeper, the greater the trust we need between the medical professional and the patient. This is something that must not change.

9.Last but not least, I hope that the ethics of the practice of medicine will never change. It is true that today with technology, with economic cost pressures, there are many pressures in the practice of medicine. But as Chuan Poh said, if we remember that at the heart of the practice of medicine is always about the care for the patient, then the ethics must not change. The greater the challenges, the greater the pressures, the greater the financial incentive, the greater we must hold on to the good ethics in the practice of medicine. So, these are the three things I hope that LKC will never change. A spirit of lifelong enquiry, the trust relationship between the patient and the medical professional, and the ethics in the practice of medicine.

10.On that note, I hope and I look forward to LKC rising to the challenge and being a pillar in the practice of medicine in Singapore. I wish you all the very best and I thank all of you for your steadfast support for LKC. Together, we will take LKC, the practice of medicine in Singapore to the next level where we will be able to better provide for all the people under our care, be it in Singapore and beyond. Thank you very much.

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