Wee Joo Chng, Professor in Medical Oncology and Vice-President of Biomedical Sciences Research at the National University of Singapore, shared on LinkedIn:
“I am very grateful and honored to be awarded the International Myeloma Foundation Asian Myeloma Network (AMN) Distinguished Service Award at the 10th AMN annual summit in Shanghai.
It was wonderful to celebrate with my colleagues from Singapore, close collaborators in AMN and most importantly my wife and son.
In my acceptance speech, I mentioned that I felt privileged and lucky to be able to join the medical profession and become a clinician scientist where I can push the boundaries of medical science and have greater impact on patients but I also decided to take on leadership, despite many advice against it (as the general feeling is that the research will suffer), to ensure we can have sustainable institutions program that ensure our impact will continue and last long after we are gone.
Often, we are not sure whether we are making any positive impact in people’s life through the work we do. To hear the tributes that colleagues have put together with testimonies from overseas and Singapore colleagues and also students and mentees, for once I feel that this last 2 decades have indeed been fruitful.
Of all the things I have done, which are many and varied, I am most proud of what we achieved at the AMN. To be part of something that did not exist 15 years ago to a thriving, globally recognized platform that brings together key opinion leaders in myeloma from across 11 different countries and regions in Asia, with different background and capabilities, working together effectively and collegially for the common good of our patients is truly something precious and rare. The leadership team went from strangers to acquaintance to now trusted friends that can have a drink together is one of the most rewarding part of this journey. Our impact on training the next generation of myeloma experts through our masterclass (some alumni are now AMN members) and on our patients through clinical trials and practice guidelines are very gratifying. What we have achieved is not easier but yet there is a long way to go and a lot more for us to do!
I truly appreciate all the support over the years from mentors, the leadership at National University Health System, National University Cancer Institute, Singapore, National University Hospital, NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and National University of Singapore, colleagues in hematology and oncology in Singapore, the myeloma team at NCIS and across Singapore and the AMN experts for their trust and support.
The future is an exciting one, I look forward to working with the team to reach more new heights in the coming years!”
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