Dear Fellows,

This month marks an important milestone in the AMS’s history. AMS has formally launched the Eminent Academician (EA) title with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Ministry of Health (MOH), Singapore.

Many long-serving Council members of the Academy have felt that there was a need for AMS to recognise role models that medical and dental practitioners in Singapore can look up to. Every profession and professional guild have their giants. We have ours too. This recognition is especially relevant when we consider that Singapore is a regional medical and scientific hub.

How do we officially distinguish these exemplars of probity, professionalism and scientific mastery who have contributed much to the profession and to healthcare?

Locally, the legal profession comes to mind with the Senior Counsel (SC) scheme that is administered by the Singapore Academy Law. The Singapore National Academy of Science (SNAS) has a very prestigious SNAS Fellowship while the Academy of Engineering Singapore likewise has its Academy Fellowship to highlight individuals for stellar leadership and career achievements in the field of engineering. The numbers in these prestigious groups are very limited. For example, to-date only 101 Senior Counsels have been appointed.

Overseas, doctors of distinction internationally are admitted by the United States’s National Academy of Medicine (NAM) as members. Till now, only three Singaporean doctors have made it to this list as overseas members.

In China, doctors who are inducted into either the Chinese Academy of Science or Chinese Academy of Engineering (There is no national Academy of Medicine in China) as Academicians are recognised to be at the apex of the medical profession by the state and the healthcare community.

It was against this backdrop that some of us felt that we should have a scheme that recognises the most accomplished and distinguished members of the medical and dental professions in Singapore. The idea probably took root sometime when Professor Teo Eng Kiong was Master and when Professor Wong Tien Yin and I were the Assistant Masters in AMS (2020 to 2021). The three of us discussed this at various occasions but with the Covid-19 pandemic in full swing then, we just did not have the bandwidth to develop the concept fully. It has taken some six years for our hope to achieve fruition.

It should be noted that the title of Eminent Academician is not an annual award or prize; it is a conferment of a title to recognise decades of dedication, excellence and service and it is a title that stays with the person for life. The award is a testament to the life of a very exceptional medical and dental specialist who can serve as role models and inspire others to greater heights.

It is also very important to recognise the Ministry of Health’s support of the EA title with the signing of this MOU. The MOU gives this initiative external validation. I am particularly grateful that MOH has agreed that the Director General of Health (DGH) will vet and approve all nominations for EA. This external validation by an authoritative party (i.e. DGH and MOH) is very important in establishing public and the profession’s confidence in the pre-eminence and prestige that the EA title brings to the conferred and each EA’s undisputable record of professional distinction.

I would like to put on recognition my personal gratitude to DGH Professor Kenneth Mak and Permanent Secretary (Policy and Development) Ms Lai Wei Lin for gracing the MOU signing ceremony at College of Medicine Building, Ministry of Health on 22 Jan 26 as signatory and witness respectively.

I would also like to thank my fellow AMS Council Members for giving me their unstinting support to see this through.

2026 is certainly off to a resoundingly good start.

Warm Regards,

Dr Wong Chiang Yin

Master

Academy of Medicine, Singapore

I have also appended the details of the EA Award in Annex A