In the spotlight is an initiative by PSS that features pharmacists who excel in their area of practice and have been role models for fellow pharmacists. In this issue, we feature:
The pharmacist being featured in the February edition of In the Spotlight is Mr Lim Teong Guan.
He is a Senior Principal Clinical Pharmacist at the Department of Pharmacy at Singapore General Hospital (SGH). Other than his role as a clinical pharmacist, Teong Guan also holds various portfolios like the non-clinical Physician Faculty in SingHealth Gastroenterology Senior Residency Program, Associate in Education in Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore, Academic visitor of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), and guest lecturer for NUS pharmacy undergraduate program.
He oversees the SGH Pharmacy Ambulatory Care Pharmacy Service, SGH Pharmacy Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) service and the Rheumatology Monitoring Clinic (RM).
His main role is to ensure service continuation through training and maintaining the competency of the pharmacists. He also runs the clinics such as the IBD clinic, RM clinic, anticoagulation clinic (ACC) and medication management service (MMS).
A little on the background of Teong Guan: After he obtained his Pharmacy Degree, he went on to further his studies for a Master of Clinical Pharmacy degree in the University of South Australia. He completed his PGY2 residency training in Internal Medicine at Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in United States. And he is currently a Board Certified Pharmacist specialist in the area of pharmacotherapy (BCPS) and ambulatory care (BCACP).
On top of managing these clinics, he chairs the SGH Pharmacy Quality and Outcomes Subcommittee that aims to consolidate, review and analyze various indicators of pharmacy services; to identify and prioritize clinical aspects for clinical audit as well as to drive quality improvement outcome measurement.
Teong Guan is versatile in many aspects as a clinical pharmacist, other than the clinical aspects, he is also actively imparting his knowledge to the new blood; he participates in the training of undergrad pharmacy and medical students, pre-registration pharmacists, pharmacy residents, medical senior residents and post-grad pharmacy students. He is also involved in research activities related to the area of practice especially in the area of IBD; he frequently take up the role as a research supervisor for NUS pharmacy final year students, pre-registration pharmacists and pharmD students.
What would Teong Guan’s best advice be for the younger pharmacists, especially when faced with challenges to motivate them and keep them going?
I hope that the younger pharmacists maintain a strong learning desire and take initiative to learn. A habit of insisting on daily knowledge improvement in the area of expertise will certainly help them in their career progression. They need to be inquisitive and practice patience along the journey. Of course, if they can find the area which they have strong passion in doing then the journey will be an enjoyable one.
Finding a good mentor will provide useful guidance in their career and life. In adversity or when faced with challenges, they should know when to seek advice from seniors or experts, and be open towards their help.
Practice reflection and always find time to think. This will allow you to come up with new strategies to move forward. Challenges are opportunities. It is important to be optimistic in adversity and always have back-up plans ready in preparing for the worst.
Contributions made by Teong Guan to the pharmacy profession
I am not sure if you can really quote these as “contributions” to the pharmacy profession. A few key achievements I can think of include
· Training pharmacist and other health-care providers since 2002 (as a trainer, preceptor, program designer, and evaluator) that includes undergrad pharmacy or medical students, pharmacy technicians, pre-registration pharmacists, junior pharmacists, pharmacy post-graduate students, pharmacy residents, nurses, medical junior doctors and senior residents. With that, I was awarded the Golden Apple Award in 2015.
· Setting up the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Service, starting with 1 pharmacist running outpatient counseling IBD clinic in 2008 to the current group of 6 pharmacists covering both inpatient and outpatient. Pharmacist contribution is well recognized by the IBD team with four of the IBD pharmacists were appointed as the members of the SGH IBD committee which previously members were only consists of mostly physicians.
· Setting up the Pharmacist managed Rheumatology Monitoring Clinic (RMC) with currently a team of 12 pharmacists providing the service. Four of the RMC pharmacists were appointed as Associate in Education in Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore.
· Setting up Pharmacy Heath Outcomes, Pharmacoeconomics and Pharmacoepidemiology (HOPP) unit in 2014 with the aims of focusing on research activities on health outcomes for pharmacy services as well as pharmacoeconomics and pharmacoepidemiology aspects. A few projects were completed and won the awards including the best international paper in 2015 American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP) Global Conference on Clinical Pharmacy, best poster (health services and outcomes) in 2015 25th Singapore Pharmacy Congress, 2015 Ground Breaking Effective Momentous (GEM) Service Award, etc.
· Completing the SGH pharmacy quality and outcome indicators framework as well as clinical audit framework. The department uses these frameworks developed to increase the competency and standardize the clinical pharmacy practice
How did Teong Guan juggle between your family/personal life and achieving such great heights in your pharmacy career? What are the challenges which the young ones should look out for?
Personally, I don’t think I have achieved great heights in pharmacy career; there is still a long way to go.
I am a person who value work-life balance; for me staying FOCUSED is the most important thing to achieve work-life balance. At work, I FOCUS on getting things done. I set the priorities and ensure things are executed with proper resource allocation. I maintain good communication with the team by engaging key leaders in decision making and planning, constantly updating and keeping them in the loop on what has happened. I also believe in entrusting other team members with important work and giving them the opportunity to shine and showcase their talents.
After work, I FOCUS on family bonding. For me family is the greatest asset in life. I will make sure the family can have dinner together at least 6 days a week. All family members will go for an overseas trip at least once a year and my 2 daughters find it enjoyable to be able to bond with their grandparents. To maintain personal improvement, I set some time every night for self-reading on both clinical and non-clinical related books and magazines.
I anticipate changes in pharmacy practice in the next few years. In pharmacy practice, there will be an increase in pharmacist participation in routine multi-disciplinary activities such as ward rounds, medication review, medication reconciliation, pharmacy managed clinics, counseling, multi-disciplinary team discussion or meeting, etc. Pharmacist will have to keep up with the change by keeping up to date. With knowledge evolving at such a rapid pace, achieving and maintenance of the clinical competency will be the major challenge for the young ones.
Because of increased multi-disciplinary nature of works in future, young pharmacists with additional good non-clinical skills (such as communication skill, networking skill, leadership skill and management skill) will have an advantage at work. In contrary, those without these skills may face challenges when they carry out routine duties. I hope that our young ones will develop good skills and both clinical and non-clinical aspects.
What are the ingredients, in your opinion, required to make one an outstanding pharmacist?
In my opinion, the ingredients below required to make one an outstanding pharmacist:
· A good team player
· Inquisitive and has strong desire to learn
· Have strong passion in things that they are doing
· Independence and disciplined
· Appreciative and respectful
· Caring, patience and approachable
· Humble and no complacent
· Do daily self-reflection
· Able to think out of the box
Mr Lim Teong Guan with his family
