EyeWorld is the official news magazine of the American Society of Cataract & Refractive Surgery.
Issue link: https://digital.eyeworld.org/i/115557
March 2013 there. But after serving as a fellow herself at Singapore National Eye Centre and getting an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, she decided to become a Singapore citizen after seven years. "The reasoning might be small," Dr. Roy said. "My passport—every time I traveled—I needed a visa for every country. [Singapore] gave good options and treated us well. At least there wasn't the hassle of traveling." Singaporeans can travel to more than 160 countries visa-free or with visa-on-arrival, including the U.S., Europe, Australia, Japan, and many other nations. "If anyone asked me to base myself somewhere else, I would have to think a lot," Dr. Roy said. "[Singaporean] infrastructure, discipline, schooling, quality-of-life, English as one of the key languages, proximity to Chennai, India [are all good]. Flights are easy. It's a beautiful place. It's also safe. As a woman, I would put that on the top of the list. I personally love the country." The result of Dr. Roy staying in Singapore has had a big impact on eyecare business there. She is currently executive director, medical affairs, Asia-Pacific, at Bausch + Lomb (Rochester, N.Y.) in Singapore. Dr. Roy's story illustrates Singapore's ability to cultivate and retain top talent from Asia-Pacific in a region where employee retention often is cited among the toughest corporate challenges. "I have not seen a case where [someone from the region says] 'No, I don't want to come to Singapore.' When they come, they don't want to go back." Professionally, Dr. Roy sees many reasons Singapore is becoming an eyecare business hub. "It's a center of excellence," she said. "Most of my medical team is based out of Singapore. We have a lot of advantages. Singapore provides significant opportunities and world-class infrastructure in ophthalmic and vision research through SERI (Singapore Eye Research Institute), which undertakes vision research in collaboration with local clinical ophthalmic centers and biomedical research institutions, as well as major centers and research institutes throughout the world. From Bausch + Lomb's point of view, this gives flexibility to have a function where we can understand what's happening on the research front and get access to the world-class systems and key opinion leaders." Although Asia is home to one of the two most populous countries in the world, it has a lot of challenges in ethical conduct of research like EW International 133 intellectual property rights, appropriate relationships between academia and commerce, and issues related to human rights privacy. continued on page 134 OCULUS Pentacam®/Pentacam® HR The indispensable tool for anterior segment analysis • Anterior and posterior corneal topography • 3D cataract analysis • Evaluation of corneal optical quality for premium IOLs • Holladay Report for post-refractive IOL calculations • NEW Iris camera and automatic HWTW measurement • NEW Belin/Ambrosio III, improved for Hyperopic eyes • LASIK Screening Visit us at ASCRS – Booth #616 facebook.com/OCULUSusa Toll free 1-888-519-5375 sales@oculususa.com www.oculususa.com www.pentacam.com