Transcript of Remarks by Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr Vivian Balakrishnan at the NUH International Ophthalmology Scientific Congress 2026, 23 October 2026

Colleagues from NUH, NUHS,

Distinguished guests,

Ladies and gentlemen.

It was a bit of a shock when Carol said, "Will you please come for the 40th anniversary of the NUH Eye department?". It is a shock because you suddenly realise how much time has slipped by. Time slips by stealthily when you've been most busy, and it has been a very eventful 40 years.

There is legacy and a sense of achievement when radical change has become routine, and I wanted to expand on this point because as we look back on 40 years of NUH, I want to start by giving tribute to the founder of the Department of Ophthalmology in NUH, our mentor and our inspiration, the late Professor Arthur Lim. You may not understand that 40 years ago, the organisation of academic health was not what it is like today. There was the private sector; there was the government sector, public health, and there was what was supposed to be the university departments, and quite frankly, the three sometimes were behind quite impermeable barriers.

So one of the first key breakthroughs for Professor Arthur Lim was to “con” the Ministry of Health that you needed to do things differently. He assembled his partners in the private sector: Dr Ang Beng Chang, Dr Khoo Chang Yew, Dr Lim Kuang Hui, Dr Shantha Amrith whom I'm very glad is here with us today, Dr Wong Chor Chon, Dr Raymond Phua, Dr Geh Min. I'm sure there are others whom I may have missed out. And he then recruited the pioneer batch of registrars: Dr Heng Lee Kwang, the late Associate Professor Chew Sek Jin, Dr Ronald Yeoh, and the pioneer residents Professor Paul Chew, Associate Professor Caroline Chee and Dr Wong Poh Kim. This motley crew already broke barriers. So that's the first point.

Then he also included the Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion in Edinburgh, Professor Brian Fleck, Professor Baljean Dhillon, and of course the other key towering person there, the late Dr Barry Cullen. That in fact was the reason why, at least for a significant period of time, the exams for the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in Ophthalmology was conjoined with the Master of Medicine (M.Med (opens in new tab)) Ophthalmology in Singapore. But it wasn't just bringing in the private sector or bringing in foreign partners; it was also because Professor Arthur Lim insisted on doing things differently clinically. For instance, I think we were the first to insist that every single operation is videotaped and reviewed when things went wrong, and to do so obsessively, comprehensively, to enhance standards and to enhance training. Those of us again who are old enough will remember the microsurgical courses, wet labs, and the fact that it wasn't just open at a local level, but at a regional level. And you must remember, 40 years ago, microsurgery, the techniques and implants were still pioneering work. Another breakthrough was to routinise research as part of clinical practice. Because prior to that, you were only measured by your productivity in how many patients and how many operations you could fulfil. And it is no accident that the Singapore National Eye Centre, the Singapore Eye Research Institute are outgrowths of the Department of Ophthalmology (NUH). So the point I'm making here is, over 40 years, barriers have been broken, radical change has been brought about, and it has been routinised. So therefore, today we have good reason to celebrate 40 years of the NUH Department of Ophthalmology, and in fact, it was a few years subsequent to that when the NUS Department of Ophthalmology also came about.

Over the years, you've trained generations of ophthalmologists. You've broken new ground, and I'm very glad that Dr Paul Chew's glaucoma implant, in fact, there will be some further announcements in the months to come on that front- but a new implant which works that bears his name, and therefore by extension, Singapore and the Department of Ophthalmology in NUH. MicroPulse P3 lasers, and the fact that these are real, genuine advances making a real difference in the daily life of clinicians and physicians. I'm also glad that we are celebrating this occasion with the International Ophthalmology Scientific Congress, and I'm glad to see so many of you from far afield joining us for this event.

It's worth taking a quick peek into what the future can bring, and I thought I'll just leave maybe three points with you. One is that all over the world, and Singapore is at the leading edge of it, we're becoming super-aged societies. Because ophthalmology, to a significant extent, is a geriatric discipline, it means there's going to be no shortage of work. I think you all know that, and it means we don't need to justify our existence for the next 40 years. The second point, which I think everyone is acutely aware of, is that the pace of technological breakthroughs, scientific breakthroughs, both in basic research as well as in applied research, is accelerating. Today, the most fashionable example of that is artificial intelligence and robotics, and here it is worth remembering that ophthalmology, prime amongst almost all other medical disciplines, has always been at the technological intersection between medicine, engineering, new materials, and digital technologies. The enormous progress in AI, with which today you can measure progress in terms of weeks, not years, will have a profound impact on our field. The fact that researchers in the NUS Medicine developed an AI tool called RetinPhenoAge, which basically uses retinal photographs, not just to identify thalamic conditions, but to help predict the risk of cognitive decline and dementia is a worked example. There will be many, many more breakthroughs and new tools that AI and ophthalmology will invent. And this is just one example. The third point is to understand that our future breakthroughs will, just like it has in the past, be at the boundaries of multiple disciplines. Identifying ophthalmic conditions early, being able to measure progression accurately, being able to predict problems before they emerge, and of course there are still frontiers in ophthalmology related to genetic ocular disease, and the possibility of intervention in in terms of gene editing, and in changing the phenotypes at the cellular level within the eye. We will have to remember from neuro-ophthalmology that the eye is not just a camera with a film, but in fact a direct outgrowth of the brain, the central nervous system, and that processing occurs at the retinal level, and not just in the cortex. All this means the intersection of these disciplines are going to provide fertile ground for many, many fundamental breakthroughs.

So the next 40 years are going to be exciting, and for those of us who've been here since the beginning, I am confident that there will be many, many more breakthroughs and many exciting frontiers, precisely because we're at the intersection of these key trends. So, on that note, let me again end by acknowledging the debt that we owe our pioneers, and to also convey to our successors that the future is bright- no pun intended. Be clear. Have a clear vision and have the guts to break new ground. And even if this radical change is initially resisted, it's worth doing, and you know it is worthwhile when time has slipped by, and the radical has become routine.

I wish you all the very best. Thank you for your help. Thank you for your contributions and your commitment to this noble cause.

Thank you all very much.

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MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

SINGAPORE

23 OCTOBER 2026