Associate Professor Tada Martin is a man who
has followed a long family tradition in clinical medicine and
medical administration, but has also managed to make his own
mark in the application of his career specialty for some of the
smallest patients in the world.
His surname comes from his paternal
grandfather, who came from the UK to SE Asia before WWII,
working for the Borneo-Burma Company. Dr. Tada’s father was a
doctor and his mother a nurse, a common background for medically
inclined children.
He went to good schools, initially in
Bangkok, and then to Montfort College in Chiang Mai when his
father was transferred to the north to the Faculty of Medicine
when Dr. Tada was 10 years old. He was a good student and from
an early age he felt that he too was destined to become a doctor
like his father. “I grew up within the Faculty of Medicine. It
became my second instinct,” he said.
After secondary school, it was off to
Chulalongkorn University for the six year slog as an
undergraduate, followed by the one year internship. Following
successful graduation, the young doctors were then required to
serve in a government clinic, and Dr. Tada chose Mae Hong Son,
where he worked as a GP for the next two years.
These two GP years were to have a profound
effect on his life and its direction. “I could see that most
diseases could be cured (by the GP), except for those in the
eye. I saw people go blind from glaucoma, whose sight could have
been saved if they could have been operated upon by an
ophthalmologist (eye specialist).” He decided to return to
training and to Chiang Mai, where he studied for his specialist
qualifications as an ophthalmologist for the next three years.
With his heart being in the north, he then
went to Lampang Hospital for the next two years, before
returning to the Faculty of Medicine in Chiang Mai in 1987 when
he was 35 years old. Here in Chiang Mai he had his clinical
practice, but continued with post graduate training for himself,
including a year spent in Tokyo, to be able to carry out more
work in retinal diseases.
During this time in Chiang Mai he became
interested and involved with premature babies, who can suffer
from a peculiar type of blindness. Dr. Tada instituted a
preventive program for these babies also involving screening of
the infants between six to eight weeks of age. All babies under
1.5 kg are screened by an ophthalmologist. From there it was to
form Visual Rehabilitation Clinics for children up to the age of
three years, “We can maximise the potential that is left for
them, if we start early enough,” said Dr. Tada. Continuing in
this direction, he formed Early Visual Stimulations Clinics with
assistance from the School of the Blind in Bangkok and the
Perkins Institute in Massachusetts in the US. These are now in
17 provinces in the North. The GP who turned ophthalmologist to
try to stop blindness had now brought about positive changes for
future sight for the premature infants and small children in the
North.
In his own professional life there were
changes as well. He became head of the Department of
Ophthalmology at Chiang Mai University, to be then promoted to
associate dean of the faculty and after another couple of years
selected to be a vice president, a position he has held for the
past three years. At this level, he does very little clinical
work, with administration being his daily grind. “My job at
the moment is about planning and budgeting for the university.
It is the twisted story of my life,” said Dr. Tada somewhat
ruefully, I felt.
His four year term as vice president finishes
next year and currently he is unsure of whether he should
continue with administrative medicine or go back to clinical
medicine, his first love. He can see some advantages for the
medical society by remaining in administration, “You can
influence the overall picture and help set the future direction
for the young doctors.” However, he has obviously not worked
this problem out yet, but has another year for his own future
direction to make itself evident. “I spend my life by living
from moment to moment,” he said, expounding a very Buddhist
concept. In his looking at this problem, I got the feeling that
Dr. Tada will call upon his Buddhist faith to show him the
correct way to go, a faith he converted to, from Catholicism,
while at university as an undergraduate.
Like most successful people, and doctors in
particular, time constraints mean that hobbies cannot be
all-consuming. He used to enjoy the occasional round of golf or
tennis matches, but these days his physical needs are served by
three gymnasium sessions each week. After that there are house
renovations and gardening - and reading. “Anything, but not
medical! I do enjoy Le Carre.”
His personal philosophy does involve the
concept that time is finite, “Time is our most precious
commodity,” and that personal effort is needed for success in
any field. He feels that the successive generations are losing
sight of these concepts, “There are problems with the young
people not going in the right direction. They have to develop
sincerity in their personal lives. Young people do not work as
hard as we did in our time. Everything in this world can come
true if you try hard enough,” he said with conviction.
And with “Time being our most precious commodity” Dr.
Tada excused himself as he had run out of that precious
commodity and our interview had to finish. Dr. Tada is a man of
medicine, from a long family involvement in medicine. He has
already left his mark, but is still young enough to continue to
influence the direction and application of medical principles.
He is one of the quiet achievers. He is a medical colleague I
can admire.
