Singapore Executives Learn About UCSF’s Hospitalist Program

UCSF Today, 3 Sep 2008, Elizabeth Chur

A management team from Singapore’s flagship hospital came to UCSF recently to study hospital medicine from Robert Wachter, MD, who pioneered the field in which physicians called hospitalists specialize in taking care of hospitalized patients.

In 1996, Wachter, UCSF professor and associate chair of the Department of Medicine, and Lee Goldman, MD, then the chair of the Department of Medicine, coined the term “hospitalist” in a New England Journal of Medicine article. The specialty is now one of the fastest growing in the history of American medicine.

“We chose UCSF because we read Bob’s papers and we know that he is a successful pioneer in this new field,” said Lee Kheng Hock, MD, head of the Department of Family Medicine and Continuing Care at Singapore General Hospital (SGH). “We’re here to learn and see how we can improve our system. Thanks to the wonderful Internet, we saw his blog and wrote to him. He wrote back and said, ‘Welcome – we are more than happy to share our vision with you.’”

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