In Focus: LKCMedicine Alumni: Powering Next-Gen Doctors

By Sanjay Devaraja, Editor, LKCMedicine's Redefine Newsletter

“We often forget our own power to make change happen around us in our clinical lives. That in serving in our daily capacity, steadfastly and determinedly, we can be movers and shakers in our own quiet way. Every small action of ours has the potential to ripple far beyond that singular event, touching hearts and inspiring others to do the same.”

This quote by Dr Stewart Retnam, an LKCMedicine alumnus, was written back in 2018, just as he was graduating from this young medical school. It was buried in an article he wrote for a commemorative book The Patient Comes First, published by LKCMedicine to celebrate the graduation of its first class. The book contains musings of LKCMedicine’s first 52 graduates, written in their own words – mostly idealistic, aspirational, ambitious.    

Fast forward to today, seven years on, the words perhaps ring truer for Dr Retnam. Not only has he quietly impacted his patients’ lives, like many other outstanding graduates of LKCMedicine, Dr Retnam has won accolades and awards for his dedication and commitment to serve his patients.

His multiple awards include the NHG Residency Peer-Teaching Commendation Award in 2023 and 2024, and the NHG Most Valuable Player Award in 2024, given to junior and senior residents, medical officers and postgraduate year-one residents who have displayed outstanding character in their work.

Dr Retnam’s early career achievements also include his success in attaining his choice residency placement. He is currently a Senior Resident specialising in Infectious Diseases with the National Healthcare Group (NHG).

Highly-rated clinical performance

Despite being a young medical school, feedback on our alumni – now more than 700-strong – from hospitals and supervisors has consistently been very positive over the years, with many highlighting the graduates' knowledge, clinical reasoning, communication skills, and ability to build rapport with patients. Some graduates have been offered residency positions even before completing PGY1.

Dr Joanne Tan, a Consultant with the Department of General Medicine at Tan Tock Seng Hospital has supervised PGY1 doctors from LKCMedicine on her team.

“The LKCMedicine graduates I have worked with have been very knowledgeable, dependable, and steady house-officers. They have a good knowledge base and clinical reasoning skills. Their communication skills are good too. I remember one of the LKCMedicine graduates patiently building a good rapport with a particularly difficult and depressed patient that nobody else could get through to. It was thanks to this doctor-patient relationship that the patient finally accepted medical treatment and was agreeable to further tests,” said Dr Tan, full of praise for those she has worked with.

Indeed, LKCMedicine graduates are building up a strong track record of successfully matching into a residency programme across various disciplines and hospitals in Singapore. These are for various fields such as Internal Medicine, Prevention Medicine, Emergency Medicine, Family Medicine, Psychiatry, and General Surgery, amongst others.

Class of 2018-2020 Residency Placement

Vice-Dean for Education Associate Professor Faith Chia shared that the School is delighted LKCMedicine graduates have consistently distinguished themselves at the frontlines of healthcare. “Our growing pool of graduates is making a significant contribution caring for Singaporeans in our local healthcare system. Their success in securing competitive residency placements is a testament of their hard work, commitment and the quality of the LKCMedicine training. We take immense pride in seeing them carry the  LKCMedicine values of compassion, integrity, humility, professionalism and continuous learning into the next chapter of their medical careers,” said A/P Chia.

Echoing on the strength of the LKCMedicne MBBS programme, especially the team-based learning approach, alumnus Dr Lee Cheok Hon, now an Internal Medicine Resident at Singapore General Hospital,  added, “A team-based approach to patient care is pervasive throughout the practice of medicine. In or out of residency, the ability to communicate and work well with different team members is always an advantageous skill - I credit LKCMedicine with instilling this in me from day one. Beyond knowledge and skills, the residency stage has huge demands in terms of administrative workload, such as, filling out various forms to document our progress and approaching faculty on our own to initiate regular formative assessments. This is something that we did regularly in Year 3-4, which taught us to take charge of our own learning; the transition to my residency was definitely easier having had this experience.”

Award-winning contributions

Further making the School proud, time and again, LKCMedicine alumni have been formally recognised for excellence – be it in clinical care or teaching, research, and service to the medical community.

Among the awards and recognition received by LKCMedicine alumni:

• National Outstanding Postgraduate Year One (PGY1) Award
  Dr Lee Wei En Zen and Dr Brandon William Hew Hsien Loong from the Class of 2022 were recognised by the Ministry of Health (MOH) for demonstrating consistency and excellence in their PGY1 training programme across their clinical skills, medical knowledge, personal attributes, and work performance.
  
  
• NTU’s Nanyang Alumni Service Award
  Awarded to Dr Leon Tan Yuan Rui from the Class of 2018. As the founding President of the LKCMedicine Alumni Association, Dr Tan received this prestigious award for his leadership, including organising reunions, establishing the MBBS final-year tutorial system, and innovating online clinical learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

• NHG Teaching Awards for Junior Doctors
  In 2022, alumni Dr Rachel Lim Wei Shan, Dr Stewart Retnam, and Dr Wee Lin were recognised for their excellence in teaching junior doctors, demonstrating LKCMedicine’s emphasis on nurturing educators as well as clinicians.
  
  
• NHG Residency Peer-Teaching Award (2023)
  Nine LKCMedicine alumni, serving as NHG residents, received this newly launched award for their exemplary commitment to teaching peers and nurturing a culture of learning within the clinical environment. From the Class of 2018: Dr Teow Kang Jun Christopher, Dr Daniel Kaijun Chong, Dr Loh Kieng Wee, and Dr Stewart Retnam. From the Class of 2019: Dr Liu Shuang Justin and Dr Seow Yi Heng. From the Class of 2020: Dr Yang Sin Yee, Dr Alexander Damian Soo Wai Keong, and Dr Choo Yue Jia.
  
  
• NHG Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award (2023)
  This award is peer-nominated, reflecting the respect and appreciation of colleagues and mentors. Dr Yang Sin Yee was among those honoured here, for outstanding character and contributions to patient care and peer support.
  
  
• Dr Yang is also a recipient of the Junior Doctor Teaching Award at the NUS Medicine Teaching Awards AY2022/23. 

Dr Yang, now an Internal Medicine Resident with NHG, shared that LKCMedicine has prepared her well to be a good doctor. “LKCMedicine has taught me to view my patients as people to be helped, rather than medical conditions to be cured, and to tailor treatment to fit their value systems and care preferences. For example, through the Integrated Communications Practice (ICP) sessions, we were trained to elicit our patients’ ideas, concerns, and expectations (ICEs) about their care. In senior student years, we were then trained to identify and address these ICEs to navigate difficult communication situations, such as breaking bad news or service recovery.

I try to bring this mindset with me to work. Although it can be difficult to achieve in a busy day, I find it very rewarding when I get a chance to slow down and talk to them and their loved ones to understand more about their personhood, such as during Advance Care Plan discussions.”

Paying it forward

Rooted in a culture of compassion, our alumni are not only serving patients but also return to give back to the School in various ways.

They teach their juniors on campus; they coach and exam-prep younger students through mock OSCE (Observed Structured Clinical Examination) sessions; they mentor younger colleagues in hospital rotations; and most recently in January this year, two alumni, Dr Leon Tan (Class of 2018) and Dr Ho Ying Na (Class of 2019) served as examiners for the Y5 summative examinations at LKCMedicine.

“It has been very satisfying on a personal level to be able to give back in these capacities,” Dr Ho said. “And I hope the students have been able to benefit from these programmes as part of their curriculum as much as I did when I was a medical student in the School.”

On LKCMedicine alumni making time from their busy work schedules to give back to their alma mater, Dr Tan noted, “As former students of the School, and current healthcare workers, we can offer current students valuable mentorship, guidance, and real-world perspective. I believe that staying connected to LKCMedicine also allows us opportunities to continually give back; allowing us to help to shape and inspire the next generation of healthcare professionals.”

Read all about their experience as NTU MBBS examiners here.

Vice-Dean for Clinical Affairs, Professor Kwek Tong Kiat isn’t surprised that LKCMedicine alumni feel strongly for the School. “We are a young medical school and those who have been with us in the early years know that the School is built on the spirit of collaboration, teamwork, and shared knowledge and values. Our graduates’ willingness to give back by guiding and training the next generation speaks volumes about their character and their commitment to the enduring values of LKCMedicine. We are very proud of what they have achieved. My hope is that this remains a tradition long into the future.”

Whether making an impact in clinical practice, guiding the next generation, or simply showing up each day with heart and integrity, our alumni continue to embody the values instilled during their time at LKCMedicine. Poised for greater success, they have our very best wishes – both in medicine and in life!