Bien Soo Tan is a senior consultant at the Department of Vascular and Interventional Radiology (IR) at Singapore General Hospital (SGH). Following his recent acceptance of the Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) Gold Medal award, Tan speaks to Interventional News about his achievements to date.
IN: Throughout your career you have won several awards and will now accept the SIR Gold Medal Award. What does winning these awards mean to you?
I am very honoured and humbled to have been presented with these prestigious awards over the course of my career so far. I view these awards as a testament to the good work and high standards of IR practised in my department in SGH, in my country, Singapore, and in the Asia-Pacific region. The practice of IR is a team game, and I would not have been able to make any significant contributions without the help of many colleagues in the various institutions and organisations who I have worked with. I would also like to acknowledge the key roles my many mentors have played in my career. These awards are also a reflection of their achievements.
IN: You are past president for the Asia-Pacific Society of Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology (APSCVIR) among other leadership positions. How important is outreach and education for IR in the Asia-Pacific region?
Today, the standard of IR in the Asia-Pacific region varies widely throughout. We have many centres of excellence across the region, but unfortunately even more regions where there is no access to IR expertise. Education is key to addressing disparity. The APSCVIR is striving to be the driving force for IR education in the Asia-Pacific region. I am privileged to be part of the APSCVIR outreach initiative. This initiative commenced in 2016 with in-person IR workshops where APSCVIR faculty volunteered to teach in multi-year IR educational programmes in countries of need. It is important that outreach programmes are not one-off events but continuous programmes working hand-in-hand with host member IR societies. The APSCVIR outreach programme unfortunately ground to a halt during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, we soon realised the potential of virtual education and established a series of IR webinars that achieved even greater reach.
Last year, we resumed our in-person outreach programmes, and the plan moving forward is to have a hybrid of in-person teaching in targeted countries while continuing virtual webinars, which reach a wider audience.
IN: You have played a pivotal role in the expansion and modernisation of SGH’s IR department. What has been a standout achievement for your centre?
The contributions towards building our hospital’s department of vascular and IR must be attributed to all IR staff at SGH, which includes our radiographers, nurses, ancillary and support staff, and doctors. We are very proud that today, we are a standalone IR department providing a comprehensive range of IR services. We strive to be an IR centre of excellence, embracing both a high standard of clinical service as well as an academic practice. The strongest attribute we have is that despite being a large organisation, everyone pulls together to work as a team, in the interest of our patients. This is in keeping with our institution’s motto ‘Patients at the heart of all we do’.
IN: What is the current status of IR in South-East Asia? Where will IR go next in your region?
IR has grown tremendously in South-East Asia over the past decade, but there continues to be many regions and countries where access to IR services is not easily available.
I see continued growth in IR, with the clinical practice of IR being developed more robustly in this region. That means that radiologists have to care for and manage patients pre and post procedure, and not just be technicians performing procedures. I am optimistic that where IR is less developed, the timelines for catching up will be shortened. IR techniques are minimally invasive and work well for patients, and eventually patients will demand for the right to access IR services.
In the next five years, IR must embrace value-based care, as there is intense competition with increasing options in healthcare. For IR to grow, we must continue to collect the data and build the evidence for our techniques, as well as prove that our techniques are cost effective.
