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:-

	Winnie Lee
	Principal Clinical Pharmacist
	Place of Practice: Singapore General Hospital
	Area of Interest : Infectious Diseases
	Years of Experience: 10

Winnie graduated from the London School of Pharmacy, United Kingdom, in year 1999. Subsequently, she did her pre-registration training with Singapore General Hospital and also obtained board certification in Pharmacotherapy (United States of America) few years later. Winnie has a strong interest in research. Since her pre-registration period with SGH, she has already been actively involved in research. Currently, Winnie is a Principal Clinical Pharmacist in SGH and she works closely with fellow colleagues and doctors in research and they have obtained numerous grants for their work. Many of her research work are published in reputable journals and she has received many awards, including the recent SGH Young Investigator Award for Allied Health Division 2009 and SGH Allied Health Innovative Practice Award 2009, for the hard work. Besides research, Winnie is also actively involved in training pharmacists, nurses and PharmD students in Infectious Diseases. In addition, she helps in the management of critically ill patients in the Surgical ICU and is also in a working committee that looks into antibiotic use in SGH and the revision of the hospital’s antibiotic guidelines. Winnie is a member of the National Antimicrobial Resistance Workgroup and the National Taskforce for Antimicrobial Stewardship, Ministry of Health. Being an all-rounder, Winnie was awarded the PSS-Shire Hospital Pharmacist of the year 2007.

What others say about her:

Winnie has an extremely logical & analytical mind to arrive at the best clinical solution promptly, when faced with an urgent, complicated clinical scenario. She is an effective team player who does not put individual glory above team's glory.  A very detailed, critical, yet patient, protective & committed mentor cum preceptor to all training under her.  Effective training & education requires energy, huge effort & time, is her belief.

Winnie is persistent, and has passion for pharmacy research. She is a great mentor.

She is smart and humble, talented and hardworking. She is working very hard with her team members to push for the success for Antimicrobial Stewardship Programme.

Winnie is extremely dedicated to her work and is committed to bring the profession to a higher level.

An Interview with Winnie

A.  What would your advice be for the younger pharmacists, especially when faced with challenges? 

"Like what you do and do what you like". Someone shared this motto with me when I started out as a brand new pharmacist almost a decade ago.

"Liking what you do". Back then, young pharmacists didn't get to choose what work they wanted to do i.e. which ward or specialty they wanted to cover - we were the international "ward covers".  Furthermore, more "menial" tasks such as workload statistics, non-formulary drugs consumption statistics were assigned to the youngest pharmacists as well. Hence, it was easy to feel discouraged as a young pharmacist especially when we saw the other more senior pharmacists doing more "glamorous work". Thankfully, I was reminded to value and learn to like whatever responsibilities and tasks that come my way, especially if you can see them as a learning opportunities too. Now looking back, the experience I gained from being the international ward cover      and data-collector of non-formulary item prescriptions really helped me later on e.g. during on-call duties and conducting antibiotic audits.

"Doing what you like".  This is everyone's dream, isn't it? Unfortunately, this dream will only come true to those who know what they like and how they are going to achieve it. Therefore my advice is simple: find out exactly what you like about this profession, set personal goals pertaining to your passion and take steady deliberate steps (be it big or small) towards achieving them.

B.      What helped / motivated you to be where you are today?  Who would you say is your role model, whom inspired you to excel in the pharmacy field that you chose?

The answer will be Dr. Andrea Kwa. She is both a mentor and a role model to me. From the time I was a pupil, she has impressed me with her ability to not just apply, but improvised what she read, to practice. Under her wings, I learnt that the relationship between bug, drug and man is always dynamic and therefore, we need to remain flexible in our practice and not blindly adhere to guidelines. She also imparted her passion for infectious diseases to me and made me appreciate the intricacies of the triangular relationship existing between humans, antibiotics and the microbes. During our numerous discussions at work, Dr Andrea Kwa did not feed me answers but taught me to seek my own answers to the therapeutic conundrums I faced.  I am very fortunate that throughout my career in SGH, Dr. Andrea Kwa kept me out of my comfort zones by constantly throwing me tasks that raised my level of practice.

     With her excellent achievements in infectious diseases research, I am inspired by Dr Andrea Kwa to be the best I can be in this field, knowing that she has already walked the walk before me.

C.      What is the most memorable moment in your pharmacy career?
     There are several memorable moments in the last couple of years. The most memorable moment would be to start the first ever Antimicrobial Stewardship Program in Singapore together with Dr. Andrea Kwa.

D.      Describe your career progression path.
   

I started out as a pre-registration pharmacist in SGH and worked as an inpatient pharmacist for two years before leaving to be a clinical research associate. I returned to SGH as a inpatient pharmacist  after one year as I missed clinical practice. I then decided to focus my training on infectious diseases after I returned to hospital pharmacy - vigorously attended any in-house and external lectures on ID; read up the ID journals extensively every month and discussed journal findings with Dr. Andrea Kwa; helped to give educational lectures on antibiotics to nurses, pharmacy technicians and pre-registration pharmacists; supervised ID-related pre-registration pharmacists’ projects every year; conducted antibiotic audits regularly; attended ward rounds with ID doctors regularly and participated in their educational sessions and clinical      projects as well. Along the way, I also decided to start on my Masters in Epidemiology (distance-learning) as I wanted to acquire additional skills to conduct ID-related research.

Due to family commitments, it was difficult for me to undergo any formal training programs overseas. Hence, I decided to obtain my training "on-the-job". I am thankful that my department manager, clinical head and Dr. Andrea Kwa had given me countless opportunities to learn as I worked. My training may not have been so structured, but it is nonetheless rigorous and valuable as my experience was gained through years of actual problem-solving and patient care.      

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