We seek to optimize the quality of life of patients with rheumatic problems by:

  • Alleviating distress and disability expeditiously;
  • Arresting damage progression effectively; and,
  • Achieving disease remission/cure eventually.

We aim to be the Centre of Autoimmunity & Rheumatology Excellence in Singapore and beyond.

As physicians, I believe that our calling should go beyond the Hippocratic triad of “Cure Sometimes, Relieve Often, Comfort Always”.

I believe that our endeavour should not be satisfied by merely bringing our patients from “minus” to “zero”, barely restoring what the disease has taken away; which is already a “good enough” achievement by most measures.

What if we cannot cure?  Or cannot fully restore?  Or cannot adequately relieve even?  Have we then failed, and our patients condemned?  What comfort is there in pain, disability and failure?

Our greater mission should seek to springboard our overcomers from “zero” to “plus”, to contemplate a life of the “so much more” which can be achieved, thanks to a thorn-in-the-flesh giving pause to take stock and reinvent a different and better future.

I highly recommend Dr David S. Pisetsky’s sage “rheuminations” in 3 parts, from which I derived my mission to optimize my patients’ quality of life, to do better than zero:

Does Secondary Gain Exist?

If the Best You Can Do Is Zero

Strength from Weakness