Mr Goh Yew Lin (left), his mother Mrs Madeline Goh, and his father, Mr GK Goh, at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music at the National University of Singapore where they endowered a professorship in 2019 // Credit: Goh Yew Lin
MEDICUS: Looking ahead, how would you describe the wider economic outlook for Singapore and the region and what opportunities do you see for the biomedical sector in particular?
GOH YEW LIN: Singapore has patiently built up a very strong capability in biomedical research over the past two decades. The research coming out of Singapore institutes is now world-class, and alongside this will come opportunities for commercialisation. This is a very good time for investors to get engaged, and we already see many more international venture capital firms investing in Singapore’s biomedical startups.
MEDICUS: In your view, what opportunities or threats does AI bring to the biomedical sector and in particular a medical education and research-intensive institution like Duke-NUS?
GOH YEW LIN: There is a lot of noise around the impact of generative AI on the future nature of work. Experts describe it as the biggest thing since the invention of the Internet browser. Even before the latest iterations of machine learning, many skills and services have already been disrupted by new technologies, and the only certainty is that the pace of change is going to increase.
From a research standpoint, this will speed up the rate of discovery and improvements in the quality of care. From an individual standpoint, however, it increases the possibility that one’s hard-earned skills may be superseded or made less valuable.
At Duke-NUS, we have to reconsider what’s truly essential for a future-ready medical education, and we will have to strengthen competencies in data science and other foundational aspects of artificial intelligence. Understanding AI will become necessary whether one is a scientist or a full-time clinician. We also need to provide our graduates with a broad base of skills upon which to build their careers, so that they can pivot along the way. Change is unpredictable but unavoidable, and we will have to get ahead of the curve.
MEDICUS: In an interview with The Edge back in 2004, you described G.K. Goh Holdings’ management style as a blend of common sense and old-fashioned principles guided by long-term strategic objectives. Can you elaborate on this philosophy, why it works for you, and do you apply this in your role as Duke-NUS Governing Board Chairman?
GOH YEW LIN: Common sense is often undervalued, and too much reliance is sometimes placed on consultants to validate what we already know (or should know). After we sold our financial services businesses in 2005, we built a small team to look for investments with a long-term growth horizon.
When we first invested in Australian aged care in 2013, it was six years after we had started studying the sector, and it was very much out of fashion. But we liked the aged care sector: globally, there is a shortage of investment, but the need for quality aged care is increasing every year. We looked at various countries, but we chose to invest in Australia in part because there was a clearer (though not perfect) policy framework.
We also invest actively in early-stage science-based university spinouts (primarily around Oxford and Cambridge). We have a particular interest in Japan and have been increasing our investments there for the past eight years. We like looking for opportunities before ideas become fashionable. The markets will eventually come around if our thesis is sound, and we aren’t in a rush.
How does this relate to my chairmanship of Duke-NUS? It’s simply that I try to look beyond the immediate issues to understand the available pathways and the risks and opportunities associated with each so that we can position Duke-NUS as a key contributor to Singapore’s biomedical and healthcare ecosystem while continuing to provide an outstanding medical education. It sounds simple; I wish it was!