We had the honour of having Prof Gerald Koh grace our public health talk. Here's a quick outline of what he shared:

• Experiences in public health
• Reasons for choosing it
• Challenges + rewards
• Balancing family, career and public service

The Path to Public Health

As a medical student, Prof Koh had decided on family medicine "right off the bat" - in particular, he fell in love with the work of general practitioners. After graduating, he noted that specialty training had started to get competitive, and did his MMED and AST.

2000-2005: After being posted to Geriatrics at Ang Mo Kio Thye Hua Guan Hospital, he found a second love in geriatrics. He shared a particular moving journey of one patient. A distressed family had been screaming at the doctors, mourning the poor prognosis of their father, who had suffered a stroke. The team rallied together, healing him with reams of rehabilitative efforts. Eventually, he strode out of hospital, sans walking aids, much to the delight of then-junior doctor Prof Koh. Remarking that the experience of the family thanking them was "completely satisfying", he decided to focus on the subset of family medicine for aged care.

2003: With the public health department recruiting, Prof Koh decided to join as a part-time teacher, and thoroughly enjoyed the work. Eventually, the director gave him a scholarship to Malta for a Masters in Gerontology

2005: After joining NUS in 2005, he realized the importance of research, but thankfully "turned out to be quite good at it". In addition to research on salivary biomarkers, he also focused on intermediate + long term care in geriatric research, along with deep dives into medical educaiton.

2009: Prof Koh moved on to research at the Centre for Health Services Research, led by his mentor, in what would eventually become the School of Public Health.

Why Public Health?

Prof Koh attributes his passion to his parents - his father was well to do, but came from a humble background, with only a primary school certificate to his name. He went into orchid hybridization, went bankrupt twice, but eventually succeeded. Inspired by his father's grit, Prof Koh decided to dive into the field, as his advised him to "let [his] imagination run with it".

Challenges & Rewards

Prof Koh shared that working in public service is and always would be immensely rewarding. He shares the importance of the GP perspective in public health. In a ministry mandate for N95 mask wearing for the entire population, one GP stood up to oppose the proposal. He pointed out that most of the old folks were entirely unaware of proper fitting for the N95 mask. Remarking that it would only drive the prices up, he advocated instead for the smarter option of a cloth mask, with ministers at the forefront in promoting health literacy. In terms of balancing public service, doctoring and family life, he thanks his wife, who was not from the medical field and faithfully sowed time into their three children. Prof Koh went on to share a story about a mother who chose to devote her whole life to her disable child, concluding that ultimately, "there's no right or wrong" - we own the choices we make.