How a S'porean doctor-scientist is transforming healthcare in China

He is working at Tsinghua University to link schools, hospitals into an integrated system

- Tan Dawn Wei

Professor Wong Tien Yin sits in a room on the 13th floor of a big, bustling Beijing hospital affiliated with Tsinghua Medicine, an academic health system he helped set up when he was named its founding head and chair professor in 2021.

But today, he is not here as its chief or a doctor; he is a patient who has just had surgery for an anterior cruciate ligament injury.

He is sitting up in his bed, his left knee in a cast after a fall. Despite the balmy, 25 deg C autumn day, the hospital does not run its air-conditioning - not even for a VIP.

This personal medical episode has given the 56-year-old Singaporean healthcare practitioner and administrator first-hand experience of being on the receiving end of the Chinese public healthcare system.

"I've practised as a doctor, and I've done the teacher route. Now I have the patient perspective," the renowned ophthalmologist and physician-scientist, who is one of the most cited eye care specialists in the world, said from his hospital bed.

That perspective has allowed him to witness the problems faced by under-resourced Chinese public hospitals - where surgeons operate from the early hours of the morning till past midnight - and the inefficiencies and wastage brought on by a lack of integration.

Routine tests are often repeated because data systems between hospitals are not linked, unlike in Singapore, where significant resources have been invested to set up a national health record repository.

China's healthcare policies also have not kept up with its rapidly ageing population, since its hospital-centric approach to care makes it difficult to manage an increasingly large number of patients.

Moreover, a shortage of doctors exacerbated by low pay making the profession unattractive - has led to endemic corruption. The authorities launched a sweeping campaign in 2023 to root out corruption, arresting hundreds of health officials and hospital directors.