It is my great pleasure and honour to present Adjunct Associate Professor Lim Toon Wei as the 36th Singapore Cardiac Society Lecturer.  I have known Toon Wei for almost 15 years now, but he will be no less familiar to the audience, having served in the Executive Committee of this august Society since 2014, including President in 2021 and currently Immediate Past-President.

A/Prof Lim graduated MBBS from the University of Sydney in 1997 with 1st Class Honours. He trained in cardiology at Westmead Hospital, Sydney, and was admitted FRACP in 2006. He pursued a keen interest in clinical and basic research in cardiac electrophysiology as a Research Fellow at Westmead Hospital from 2006 to 2009, working in the area of catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation. This corpus of research, which included one of the largest randomized clinical trials of AF ablation at the time, led to a PhD award from the University of Sydney in 2011. A/Prof Lim further honed his clinical expertise in electrophysiology in 2009 as a Fellow at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, Canada.

Toon Wei is presently a Senior Consultant cardiologist at the National University Heart Centre, Singapore (NUHCS) where he is an accomplished electrophysiologist. He was until recently the Secretary-General of the Heart Rhythm Society of Singapore and the country representative to the Asia Pacific Heart Rhythm Society. He has more than 100 papers to his credit, including several high visibility publications in the AF space with international collaborative groups.

However, A/Prof Lim is much more than an electrician. He directed the NUHCS Coronary Care Unit for 8 years till 2020. Presently, he is the Head of Community Cardiology, NUHCS, as well as the Director of Community Specialist Integration at NUHS. And deservedly so, as he has long been involved in patient advocacy and championed the devolution of specialist care from the cloistered halls of institution and academia to the community setting. This strategy to improve patient access, reduce hospital congestion, and lower costs is surely a step in the right direction.

There are too many other accomplishments and accolades to enumerate but some among you might like to know who Toon Wei is in real life. To my knowledge, a clear thinking, straight talking, morally principled person, left-leaning on the political spectrum, somewhat woke, and most important, a devoted husband and father of 3 rambunctious sons. He is ambitious but can any past President of the Singapore Cardiac Society be accused of a lack of ambition? No doubt, A/Prof Lim’s immersion in leadership development over the past decade and his current candidacy in the UCLA-NUS Executive MBA program stands him in good stead for future leadership and management roles.

In short, A/Prof Lim is an accomplished clinician and researcher, a passionate advocate of community cardiology, and a natural born leader. Let us together congratulate Toon Wei for the timely conferment of this Lectureship!