As mentioned in the previous post “October 2010 holds many new ‘first’ for me“, there are two other new ‘first’ and this is one of it.
That’s right ladies and gentlemen, I have graduated from my doctorate program (about a week ago), henceforth, my official salutation will be ‘Dr.’
No, I did not go to Medical School (I did not get a MD – Medical Doctorate) nor did I do a Research Doctorate (PhD – Doctor of Philosophy), what I completed was a Professional Doctorate – a Doctor of Industrial Technology (D.I.T) which focus on the optimization theory, human factors, organizational behavior, industrial processes, industrial planning procedures, basically the effective application of technology into the industry. For the interested, my (applied) thesis is in Health Informatics 🙂
For the unaware, a professional doctorate is on the same level with a research doctorate (a.k.a PhD), it’s just that the focus is different
- A professional doctorate is applied research to a profession while a research doctorate is .. well.. more academia in nature
- The minimum entry requirement for a professional doctorate is a Master Degree with substantial working experience while the research doctorate is good honors with zero requirements on working experience
To understand more on this topic, read this article. (P.S. a Medical Doctorate is also a professional doctorate).
Now not many people knew that I was undertaking doctorate studies (for those whom I told, very few believed it to be true because I am always making jokes about it), the reason why I did not make it ‘public information’ is because I had previously embarked on a PhD program but it didn’t materialize, hence it would have been extremely embarrassing if I didn’t manage to complete my Doctor of Industrial Technology (thankfully I did).
Because I work in both higher education and in the healthcare industry, I get addressed as ‘Dr.’ on several occasions prior to this (especially when I present at conferences) and it was quite awkward having to correct people, so I am kind of glad that I have finally graduated.
So there you have it, the second ‘first’ for me in the month of October, there is a third ‘first’ so stay tune 🙂
~Dr. Adam CHEE
BinaryHealthCare (BNHC) 