In memoriam

Khean-Lee (KL) Goh

A Leader For The Asia-Pacific Gastroenterology Community

by Professor Rakesh Aggarwal on behalf of the Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Foundation

JGHF Trustee from 2002-2016. Chair from 2012-2016. JHF Editor. JGH Open Founding Editor.

Professor KL Goh (KL to all of us) served the Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Foundation as a Trustee from 2002 to 2016, including the last four years as its Chair. Prof. Goh was a great leader, with an inimitable style characterised by a gentle and understated demeanour. He was deeply interested in fostering education and research in the field of gastrointestinal sciences in the Asia-Pacific medical community. He embodied collegiality, welcoming all and creating links between clinicians in the region who could further research and improvements in GI care. He recognised appreciatively the contribution of all those involved in work of the Foundation, and passed on the credit to others for work that had in fact been done by him behind the scene.

During his time with the JGHF he was involved in establishing a number of awards and supporting a range of projects around the Asia-Pacific region. I vividly recall the meeting where I first proposed starting a Young Clinician Investigator Programme as a one-day, pre-conference activity at the APDW meetings to teach the young participants, mostly trainees, the basics of research methodology. He immediately supported the idea though it meant a significant expense on the part of the Foundation and saw to it that it was implemented. He made sure to take time out to attend some of the sessions at the first iteration and to provide his feedback.

He was deeply interested in the progress of the Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology which he sincerely believed in as providing a forum to gastroenterologists in the Asia-Pacific region for publishing their work. He was always open to new ideas and experimentation. Thus, with the advent of the “author pay” model for publication and realizing the need for this for the Asia-Pacific gastroenterology community, he worked closely with Wiley to help set up the JGH Open – an open-access journal. He decided to give up his position as the Chair of the Foundation ahead of the scheduled time to work towards the success of this journal and give the latter his undivided attention. He nurtured the JGH Open as a parent does a baby. He regularly implored the Foundation for support for it through funding of the publication fees for articles submitted to it for the initial few years. This, we believe, was one of the steps that paved the way for the eventual success of this endeavour.

My last meeting with him was in late 2022 in Kuala Lumpur, when the Foundation decided to felicitate him for his contributions. He was his usual self, sharing several thoughts to further the causes that he believed in.

His gentle nature, kindness and humour will be missed by those who knew him including all of us at the Foundation.