The Singapore National Eye Centre sets its sights on being a leader in patient care, research and specialisation, reports Philip Lee

PROVIDING the best eye care and making it affordable for all Singaporeans, especially subsidised patients — this is the top priority of the Singapore National Eye Centre (SNEC), says its medical director Professor Donald Tan .Next is cutting-edge research as well as stem cell culture to treat eye diseases. These are among the core activities at the Singapore Eye Research Institute (Seri), the centre’s research arm.
 
Prof Tan also highlights the importance of training more young doctors to be sub-specialists in the treatment of different eye diseases.

Sub-specialisation is a mentorship programme in which a young doctor is trained in a particular type of eye surgery under the close supervision of an experienced surgeon.

Says Prof Tan: “If you really want to be excellent, you must develop the best quality skills by sub-specialisation.”

These priorities are vital in the face of Singapore’s growing population of elderly citizens, he adds.

“With people here living longer, we are going to see an increase in the number of age-related eye problems.”

There will be more cases of corneas that fail, apart from common ailments such as cataracts (clouding of the eye’s lenses), glaucoma (internal eyeball pressure) and diabetes, which can lead to blurred vision or blindness.

On glaucoma, Prof Tan says SNEC has devised a method to screen patients which is different from that in the west.

“Asian eyes are shaped differently. We are looking at genes. We are looking into why glaucoma happens and how to treat it.”

He adds that studies on diabetes among the Chinese, Malays and Indians reveal that the latter two races
have higher incidences of the disease.

“We are still uncertain if this is due to genetics or other factors,” he says. He adds that SNEC has also been looking into myopia among young Singaporeans from two aspects — genes and environment.

Genetically, the Chinese are predisposed to myopia, he says.

“Our studies show that Chinese kids in particular who spend hours in ‘near-focus activities’ such as playing computer games like Game Boy have higher risk of getting myopia.

“Conversely, we and others have found that more outdoor activities are protective because those who play more sports do less Game Boy.”

Laboratory studies are going on to understand this, he says.

Also, an eye-drop treatment to slow down or stop the progression of myopia is in its final trials. “We believe we may have an answer to myopia soon,” says Prof Tan.

On stem cell therapy, he notes that Singapore is at the forefront in this field and its technique has been patented.

He says Singapore leads the world in corneal transplant successes, pegged at 93 per cent.

Research at Seri has been intense. Last year, an international medical study found Singapore to be the most prolific, on a per capita population basis, in publishing eye-care research findings.

Singapore also has the single largest cornea transplant database in the world, says Prof Tan, adding that SNEC now has over 3,300 transplant records.

On service improvements for patients, Prof Tan says: “It takes only five days from polyclinic referral for a
patient to see one of our doctors.” This compares favourably with the average waiting time of one month in government hospitals.

Looking at the larger picture, Prof Tan says: “We want to enhance our reputation in the region by accommodating foreign patients. “Singapore has a small population. If we are going to treat eye diseases well, especially the rare ones, we are going to need volume for trials and genetic studies.

“Also, foreign patients bring extra revenue which will be ploughed back into research and to treat Singapore patients.”