Hear, bear!

A humanitarian mission to Cambodia led ENT specialist Dr Lynne Lim to dedicate a decade of her life to creating an efficient and cost-effective solution to treat a medical condition that affects millions. For her lifechanging work, Cartier Women's Initiative has named her its 2024 Science & Technology Pioneer. She shares her inspiring story.

- CHARMAINE HO

I initially wanted to be an architect. I have always loved the arts but being a “guai” (obedient) girl, I listened to my mum and put medicine down as my first choice on my general admissions form to the National University of Singapore (NUS). I remember her saying: “You have to put down medicine first because if you don’t get into medicine, then you can still get into architecture.” But I got in—and I’ve never regretted it. So there is some good that comes out of listening to your parents.

After graduating with a Bachelor of Medicine from NUS in 1992, I was admitted as a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh four years later upon completing my ENT (ear, nose & throat) specialty fellowship examination. (By God’s grace, I was one of just two people who were accepted into the specialty that year). In 2001, I was awarded an ENT Surgery and National Medical Research Council’s Research Training Fellowship at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Centre in the United States. During this time, I was also working towards completing my Master of Public Health degree at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.

It wasn’t easy, and I was kept very busy especially since I had my daughter with me. She was only a little over a month old when I first flew to America with her and my husband in tow. (The year that I arrived in the States was also the year that 9/11 happened—but that’s a story for another day.) We had a tough time there, but I learnt a lot and came back with knowledge of new technologies and surgeries—like pediatric airway and cochlear implant surgery, for example, which were difficult procedures that were still quite new back then. All this, coupled with the fact that I was mentored by pediatric ENT guru Professor Robin Cotton, allowed me to travel around the Asia-Pacific a lot to teach surgeries and conduct workshops after the fellowship.