ALUMNI SCENE
of Medicine Malaysia (the umbrella body of medical specialties) from 2002 to 2006. Today, Dato’ Kew is the Dean of International Medical University (IMU), a private institution in Kuala Lumpur. Of her many accomplishments, Dato’ Kew finds her work in gastroenterology the most rewarding. “I was able to contribute to the specialty by shaping the training of gastroenterology as a subspecialty in the Ministry of Health in Malaysia,” she explains. “I laid down the groundwork for training, the structure, specifics, logbook, rotation, etc. I was also instrumental in conducting training for a handful of trainers in HKL. I also helped set up the endoscopy service there.” Her role as President of MSGH allowed her to promote the specialty, educate healthcare professionals and the public. “The MSGH was instrumental in producing several Clinical Practice Guidelines in Gastroenterology,” she adds.
BODY OF WORK
FROM A “SUPERFRESH” IN 1964 TO A PUBLIC SERVICE CAREER IN MALAYSIA, DATO’ KEW SIANG TONG (MEDICINE ’69) — NOW DEAN OF A PRIVATE MEDICAL UNIVERSITY — SHARES HER LIFE’S ADVENTURES. BY THERESA TAN
orange curls and an authoritative air about her, it is impossible to miss Dato’ (Mrs) Kew Siang Tong. Her maiden name is Hsu Yuan I, but Dato’ Kew took on her husband’s name upon marriage, and the honorific ‘Dato” marks her service as a physician to the public and to members of Malaysian royalty; she has been awarded two Dato’ships, the first by the Sultan of Perak in 1989, and the second by the Sultan of Selangor in 1993. Dato’ Kew credits her linguistic flair for her success as a doctor. “I speak and write English, and I speak Malay, Mandarin and the Cantonese, Hokkien and Hakka dialects,” she says. “When you can speak their language, patients will talk their hearts out to you.” The mother of two and grandmother of three seems to have lived a charmed life. The youngest of 10 children, Dato’ Kew pursued medicine because her father had expressed a wish for one of his children to be a doctor. Arriving in Singapore from Indonesia in her midteens, the young Yuan I completed her Chinese middle school education in Anglican High School before studying for her ‘A’ Levels at St Andrew’s Secondary School, doing well enough to skip a year. Her results were stellar enough to qualify her for a place at the School of Medicine at the thenUniversity of Singapore in 1964, where she entered as a “superfresh” – a student who did not need to do the first year of Medicine as most of the topics were a repeat of what she had covered at ‘A’ Level. EQUAL TERMS Being a female medical student in the ’60s was a rarity. “Our class had about
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ALUMNUS
125 students, and there were fewer than 25 females, so [that was] about 20 per cent,” she says, noting that these days females make up 50 to 60 per cent of the medical cohort. “I don’t remember having any problem because of my gender; there was no discrimination of any sort. Men and women competed on equal terms.” It was another female medical student who became Dato’ Kew’s mentor. “We started doing clinical work in our fourth year, and we’d share wards with the final year students. I was very fortunate to have an excellent senior – Datin Dr Gnanam Duraisamy who is
I DON’T REMEMBER HAVING ANY PROBLEM BECAUSE OF MY GENDER; THERE WAS NO DISCRIMINATION OF ANY SORT. MEN AND WOMEN COMPETED ON EQUAL TERMS. today Consultant Haematologist at Gribbles Pathology (a Malaysian web-based pathology lab) – who took the trouble to guide and nurture me and explain things to me in my formative years. I developed my love for clinical medicine from that year in Medicine.” Dato’ Kew names the late Emeritus Professor Wong Hock Boon (Medicine ’52) as the Medical School teacher who inspired her most deeply. “He was one of the best teachers, so humble, and he worked very hard. We used to call him the ‘walking paediatric encyclopaedia’,” she says.
Dato’ Kew topped her cohort of
1969, achieving Distinctions both in
Medicine and Surgery. She won the University Silver Medal, which is awarded to the overall best student, the Brunel Hawes Gold Medal for Medicine awarded to the best student in Clinical Medicine, and the Yeoh Khuan Joo Gold Medal for Surgery, which is awarded to the best student in Surgery in the final professional exam. She says, “I treasure these awards the most; these were attained through my own effort and sweat. I keep them in my safe deposit box!” PUBLIC SERVICE Despite her achievements, Dato’ Kew’s favourite memory of her undergraduate years was meeting her classmate and future husband Dr Kew Siang Tong (Medicine ’69), today a general practitioner in Malaysia. “When we started courting, gossip went around that I had contracted Q fever – a play on ‘Kew’,” she laughs. The couple married in Malaysia after graduation, and Dato’ Kew did her houseman years in general medicine, obstetrics and gynaecology at the Ipoh General Hospital (now called Hospital Raja Permaisuri Bainun). She worked in Perak, then Perlis as a medical officer – her first son was born in Perlis in 1973 – before being transferred, together with her husband, to Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL). She was appointed Registrar in 1974. After a range of positions at HKL, Dato’ Kew rose to the position of Head of Medicine of the Ministry of Health (Malaysia) in 1998, a post she held till her retirement from public service. Along the way, she also served as President of the Malaysian Society of Gastroenterology and Hepatology (MSGH) from 1992 to 1993, President of the College of Physicians Malaysia (1992-2000), and Master of the Academy
PHOTO BY WILSON PANG
W
ITH A HEAD FULL OF FLAMING
PEER TEACHING Today, as Dean of IMU, Dato’ Kew draws from her experience as a medical undergraduate to lead her students. “In my fourth year as a medical student, I learned medicine by seeing patients and doing clinical work. The corollary we often use is that of swimming; you can read all the books you want on swimming, but you don’t learn to swim until you jump into the water! In IMU, as in NUS and many medical schools, clinical exposure starts as early as Year 1. Students can see the application in patients.” Her early personal experience with a good mentor inspired Dato’ Kew to implement peer teaching in IMU. “Students often find it easier to learn from peers. A buddy system is very useful and provides great support, and buddies often become lifelong friends.” Of her myriad achievements and career, Dato’ Kew says, “I’m just very blessed in many ways. Being a Christian I see all these as gifts from God, something which I don’t really deserve, given to me for a specific purpose. I’m just very grateful to be given the opportunity to serve as a doctor and in medical education.” * IMU offers students two tracks: one to go overseas to one of its 28 Partner Medical Schools after completing five semesters in IMU; and the other the full MBBS programme of 10 semesters, all in IMU. JUL–SEP 2015
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