SingHealth IMU is an early phase clinical research unit supporting the clinical research of commercial partners and clinical investigators from SingHealth. It is also a registered corporate entity for clinical trial operations, which requires practical business acumen to grow as an enterprise.

To steer this unique double-duty unit, Associate Professor Darren Lim helms it as Clinical & Scientific Director while Sue Tee leads as Director of Administration and Operations. This arrangement creates a dynamic perfect for flexibility in the highly competitive bio-pharmaceutical industry.

Time is of essence in IMU. Sue illustrated the mechanism behind the scenes: “Young investigators come to us with a lot of enthusiasm.   We don’t want to dampen that, so whenever we take on a new study we will have a protocol review committee discussion and all of us will find a way to move the study faster.”

Within IMU, connections and expert know-how of the industry makes the difference , and the trial subjects are the main drivers behind the pace at which the unit operates. “We all want to see results from studies and trials to bring improvement in the subjects, our patients,” Sue said.

"I find it very healthy to have conflicts and be able to have open communication channels for discussion. It means that all of us are thinking of how to do things better."

The two directors believe that everyone is a valuable resource who plays an important role.   They have brought great synergy in managing a core team of Clinical Research Coordinators, Clinical Research Nurses and Resident Physicians, without which, SingHealth IMU would not have been able to handle a total of 92 early phase trials in the last five years, 70 per cent of which are industry sponsored.

The culture of collaboration is very strong in IMU.   Members of the core team meet twice a month to make clinical decisions to ensure patient safety and timely follow-ups to get the best outcome from the ongoing trials.

IMU has shown concrete results of the partnership of the two leaders sharing complementary roles.   Dr Chan Herng Nieng, consultant with the SGH Department of Psychiatry and collaborating clinician Principal Investigator (PI) with IMU, is one of the beneficiaries of their good work.   He said, “As clinicians, we are generally less practiced in the corporate factors and paperwork of running a trial.   IMU assists me greatly because the two leaders have a deep appreciation of the clinical aspect along with skill sets in admin and finance to really take a huge load off investigators.”

Dr Jenny Low, Senior Consultant with the SGH Department of Infectious Diseases and clinician PI with ongoing trials with IMU, said, “From a clinician PI's point of view, the dual leadership role works great because you need a huge team of people with very diverse skill sets. Having the dual leadership gives us PIs a lot of faith that our trial will be conducted in a professional manner where we can be assured that the processes and the management are in line with international standards.”

"Once we begin a trial, IMU offers the PI an able team and we're breaking boundaries by being able to think out of the box to get the trial going." 

The co-directors face daily challenges, but their mutual respect, understanding and energy are invaluable assets to IMU.   By March 2015, there were 42 on going trials running simultaneously under the dual-leadership unit.

Sue highlighted, “I find it very healthy to have conflicts and be able to have open communication channels for discussion.   It means that all of us are thinking of how to do things better. Darren and I have very strong personalities but after working together for six years we've come to respect each other.

“There are times when you realise strong personality traits are actually a show of passion for  the calling of this unit.   Once we begin a trial, IMU offers the PI an able team and we're breaking boundaries by being able to think out of the box to get the trial going.”