Dr Balaji Sadasivan
IHF-SG Excellence Award For Medical Contribution
Dr Balaji, born 11 July 1955 — 27 Sept 2010, was a Singaporean politician and neurosurgeon who attended Siglap Secondary School, Raffles Institution and National Junior College.
He studied medicine at the NUS and after graduating in 1979, he continued his education at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, becoming a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons (F.R.C.S.) in 1984. Then he had training in residency at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, United States, and a fellowship at Harvard University, with a clinical appointment at Brigham Hospital and Boston Children’s Hospital.
When he returned to Singapore, Balaji was appointed as a consultant at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, and was responsible for reorganizing the care of stroke patients, mechanizing the neurosurgical intensive care unit, and introducing stereotactic brachytherapy for brain tumors.
In 1994 he entered private practice, establishing Singapore’s first radio-surgical treatment system using a linear accelerator at the Gleneagles Hospital. He established a company to develop and build image-guided surgical systems after working with Siemens. To better understand work-related legal issues pertaining to neurosurgery, he studied law and obtained a degree with Honours from the University of London in 1999.
Dr Balaji became a People’s Action Party (PAP) candidate in the 2001 General Election and was elected to parliament on 25 October 2001. He was regarded as one of the Super Seven Members of Parliament who were made officeholders upon election. He had to take a pay cut in his work as a neurosurgeon.
He served as Minister of State and Senior Minister of State in several Ministries including Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Health.
A multi-linguist in Mandarin, Tamil and English, Balaji excelled in the fields of medical practice as a neurosurgeon, grassroots activities, community work as an Advisor with Indian Activity Executive Committees (IAECs) and SINDA (as President). He was also responsible for the initial development of the National Arts Gallery while with the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts.
While in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs he was appointed as Chairman of Executive Board with the World Health Organization (WHO). During his time there he contributed greatly towards achieving world health development, pandemic preparedness and non-communicable diseases.
Untimely Death
In September 2008, Balaji was diagnosed with colon cancer and had surgery to remove a malignant tumor. He had follow-up treatment but after a two-year battle, Balaji suffered a relapse in 2010 and passed away on 27 September at the age of 55.
He was married to Ma Swan Hoo and the couple have two children, Dharma and Anita.
Dr Balaji was writing a book titled ‘The Dancing Girl: A History of Early India’, but passed away before he could finish it. His wife helped to complete the book which was published posthumously in July 2011 by the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute and launched by SR Nathan, sixth President of the Republic of Singapore.