General Surgery

Adj Asst Prof Vijayan Appasamy, Pro­gram Direc­tor, TTSH

A/Prof Vijayan Appasamy is a Senior Con­sul­tant Trauma Sur­geon. Despite run­ning a full clin­i­cal work­load, Mr Vijayan is also heav­ily involved in improv­ing the work processes and patient safety mea­sures in the Divi­sion of Surgery. He also takes a keen inter­est in edu­cat­ing the next gen­er­a­tion of doc­tors and sur­geons. Aptly, Mr Vijayan is the Pro­gram Direc­tor for the TTSH Res­i­dency Program.

Mr Vijayan takes a refresh­ing approach to teach­ing. Instead of demand­ing the right answers, he encour­ages his stu­dents to ask the right ques­tions. In place of didac­tic lec­tures, he brings the lessons into the wards and oper­at­ing the­atres, cre­at­ing every oppor­tu­nity for his res­i­dents and stu­dents to be intel­lec­tu­ally stim­u­lated. Instead of using “spoon feed­ing” ped­a­go­gies, Mr Vijayan uses daily patient care issues to help doc­tors embark on self-motivated jour­neys of discovery.

In the same way that he does not accept sta­tus quo, Mr Vijayan also demands his res­i­dents to chal­lenge his man­age­ment deci­sions, ask­ing if there are bet­ter ways to treat the patients. In this way, the learn­ing envi­ron­ment is made stim­u­lat­ing and ful­fill­ing for the res­i­dents and students.

An astute sur­geon, a ded­i­cated teacher and a Man of Let­ters, Mr Vijayan is poised to take the TTSH Res­i­dency Pro­gram to greater heights.

Dr Alfred Kow, Asso­ciate Pro­gram Direc­tor, TTSH

Dr Alfred Kow is cur­rently work­ing as an Asso­ciate Con­sul­tant in the Depart­ment of Surgery, Tan Tock Seng Hos­pi­tal. He grad­u­ated from NUS School of Med­i­cine in 2002 and started his basic train­ing in 2003. After com­plet­ing his MRCS exam­i­na­tion and achieved Mas­ters of Surgery in 2005, he started his advanced train­ing in TTSH Depart­ment of Surgery. He com­pleted his exit exam­i­na­tion in Hong Kong in March 2009 and was awarded the qual­i­fi­ca­tion of FRCSEd (Gen Surgery) that year.

His area of sub­spe­cialty is in gen­eral surgery, laparo­scopic surgery and Hepa­to­bil­iary sur­gi­cal oncology.

Dr Kow has great pas­sion in devel­op­ing sur­gi­cal edu­ca­tion. He con­ducts teach­ing ses­sions reg­u­larly for med­ical stu­dents, house offi­cers and med­ical offi­cers as well as nurses. He was appointed Clin­i­cal Tutor for YLL­SoM since 2005 and sub­se­quenty, pro­gressed to hold the appoint­ment of Clin­i­cal Teacher in 2008. In 2007, Dr Kow was awarded the Best Teacher Award for the junior doc­tor cat­e­gory in Divi­sion of Surgery in TTSH, when he was a registrar.

Dr Kow also has wide expo­sure in clin­i­cal research with var­i­ous pre­sen­ta­tions & pub­li­ca­tions in inter­na­tional con­fer­ences and journals.

Dr Tan Kok Yang, Asso­ciate Pro­gram Direc­tor, AH-KTPH

Dr Tan Kok Yang spe­cial­izes in col­orec­tal can­cer surgery and laparo­scopic col­orec­tal surgery with a spe­cial inter­est in low rec­tal can­cers and sphincter-preserving surgery. He also per­forms a wide vari­ety of basic and com­plex anorec­tal oper­a­tions includ­ing explor­ing new meth­ods in haem­or­rhoidal surgery. He also per­forms advanced pro­ce­dures in colonoscopy. He did his fel­low­ship at Jichi Med­ical School, Saitama Med­ical Cen­tre of Japan under the tute­lage of Prof Fumio Kon­ishi. He strongly believes in sur­gi­cal inno­va­tions and pro­gres­sive research. His research work is well pub­lished in numer­ous inter­na­tional peer-reviewed jour­nals. He is on the Inter­na­tional Advi­sory Board of Diges­tive Endoscopy. He has also writ­ten 4 book chap­ters on col­orec­tal surgery and pub­lished a num­ber of edi­to­ri­als in inter­na­tional col­orec­tal surgery jour­nals. He is a Board Mem­ber of the Chap­ter of Gen­eral Sur­geons of the Col­lege of Sur­geons and a com­mit­tee mem­ber of the Soci­ety of Col­orec­tal Sur­geons of Sin­ga­pore. His other pas­sion in the field of surgery is the improve­ment of out­comes in elderly patients. He is actively involved in projects and clin­i­cal research on this chal­leng­ing group of patients.

Adj. Asst Prof Tan Jye Yng Jane, Core Fac­ulty Mem­ber, TTSH

Adjunct Assis­tant Pro­fes­sor Jane Tan grad­u­ated from the National Uni­ver­sity of Sin­ga­pore, and com­pleted her post­gradru­ate train­ing in Sin­ga­pore and in Aus­tralia. Her area of spe­cial­ity is in Col­orec­tal, Gen­eral and Laparo­scopic Surgery. She is cur­rently a Con­sul­tant in the Depart­ment of Gen­eral Surgery, Tan Tock Seng Hos­pi­tal.
Adj Asst Prof Tan has a keen inter­est in teach­ing, and has received many teach­ing acco­lades over the years. She par­tic­i­pates actively in the teach­ing of under­grad­u­ates, post­grad­u­ates, nurses and in con­tin­u­ing med­ical edu­ca­tion for doc­tors. Adj Asst Prof Tan is also involved in clin­i­cal research, and has pre­sented and pub­lished papers at both local and inter­na­tional conferences.

Prof Ken­neth Mak, Core Fac­ulty Mem­ber, AH-KTPH

Prof Ken­neth Mak is Head and Con­sul­tant, Depart­ment of Gen­eral Surgery, Alexan­dra Hos­pi­tal. A/Prof Mak is a fel­low of the Royal Col­leges of Sur­geons in Edin­burgh and Glas­gow. His sub­spe­cialty inter­ests include hepa­to­bil­iary and pan­cre­atic surgery, sur­gi­cal crit­i­cal care and trauma. A/Prof Mak is a Deputy Chair­man of the Med­ical Board at Alexan­dra Hos­pi­tal and con­cur­rently Med­ical Direc­tor for Jurong Med­ical Centre.

Dr Tan Tzu-Jen, Core Fac­ulty Mem­ber, AH-KTPH

Dr Tan Tzu-Jen is a Con­sul­tant in the Depart­ment of Gen­eral Surgery, Alexan­dra Hos­pi­tal. He received his M.D from Indi­ana Uni­ver­sity and trained in the Phoenix Inte­grated Sur­gi­cal Res­i­dency in Ari­zona. He received his board cer­ti­fi­ca­tion in Gen­eral Surgery from the Amer­i­can Board of Surgery. His sub-specialty inter­ests are in advanced laparoscopy, upper gas­troin­testi­nal and hepa­to­bil­iary pan­cre­atic surgery with a spe­cial focus on bariatric solu­tions for weight management.

Dr Cheng Shin Chuen, Core Fac­ulty Mem­ber, AH-KTPH

Dr Cheng Shin Chuen read Med­i­cine in the Uni­ver­sity of New South Wales, Syd­ney, Aus­tralia and grad­u­ated in 1998. He com­pleted his basic and advance spe­cialty train­ing in Gen­eral Surgery in Sin­ga­pore through attach­ments to Tan Tock Seng Hos­pi­tal, National Uni­ver­sity Hos­pi­tal, Sin­ga­pore Gen­eral Hos­pi­tal and Ken­dang Ker­bau Women’s and Children’s hos­pi­tal. He was awarded his spe­cialty (Gen­eral Surgery) Fel­low­ship from the Royal Col­lege of Sur­geons, Edin­burgh, in 2006. Sub­se­quently, from the period of April 2007 to April 2008 he was a senior clin­i­cal fel­low in Vas­cu­lar and Endovas­cu­lar Surgery in Prince of Wales Hos­pi­tal, Syd­ney. He is cur­rently a con­sul­tant Sur­geon in the depart­ment of Surgery, Alexan­dra Hos­pi­tal with a sub­spe­cialty inter­est in Vas­cu­lar and Endovas­cu­lar Surgery and Vas­cu­lar Imag­ing. He also holds the con­cur­rent clin­i­cal appoint­ments of Vis­it­ing Sur­geon to Depart­ment of Inter­ven­tional Radi­ol­ogy, Vis­it­ing Con­sul­tant to Depart­ment of Gen­eral Surgery, Tan Tock Seng Hos­pi­tal and Assis­tant Renal Trans­plant Sur­geon, Depart­ment of Urol­ogy, National Uni­ver­sity Hospital.

Dr Chan Chung Yip, Core Fac­ulty Mem­ber, TTSH

Dr Chan Chung Yip grad­u­ated from the National Uni­ver­sity of Sin­ga­pore in 1997. He com­pleted basic spe­cialty train­ing in Gen­eral Surgery in 2001, and took a 2 year hia­tus from advanced spe­cialty train­ing (AST) from 2002 to 2004 to pur­sue bench-top research in pan­cre­atic can­cer. He com­pleted AST in 2006 and did 2 over­seas fel­low­ship stints in hepa­to­bil­iary and pan­cre­atic surgery. The first one was in liver trans­plan­ta­tion in Chang Gung Memo­r­ial Hos­pi­tal, Kaoshi­ung, Tai­wan. The sec­ond was in laparo­scopic hepa­to­bil­iary and pan­cre­atic surgery in Seoul National Uni­ver­sity Bun­dang Hos­pi­tal. He is cur­rently a mem­ber of the liver trans­plant team in NUH, and is keenly devel­op­ing laparo­scopic surgery in TTSH. His research inter­ests include mol­e­c­u­lar genet­ics of pan­cre­atic car­cino­gen­e­sis, as well as improv­ing clin­i­cal out­comes in liver surgery.

Adj. Asst Prof Chan Mun Yew Patrick, Core Fac­ulty Mem­ber, TTSH

Dr Patrick Chan grad­u­ated from National Uni­ver­sity of Sin­ga­pore in 1989 and com­pleted his train­ing in Gen­eral Surgery in 1996. In 1997, he was a fel­low with the Edin­burgh Breast Unit in Scot­land. After his return from fel­low­ship, he went on to develop in his sub­spe­cial­ity of breast and endocrine surgery. He is cur­rently the Chief of the Breast Ser­vice in the Depart­ment of Surgery at Tan Tock Seng Hos­pi­tal and serves as the lead sur­geon in his hospital’s breast screen­ing pro­gramme. He is also inter­ested in clin­i­cal research and has co-authored over a dozen papers in peer-review jour­nals. He is keen in med­ical edu­ca­tion and has been appointed adjunct Assis­tant Pro­fes­sor in the Yong Loo Lin School of Med­i­cine since 2008.

Dr Rao Jaideep­raj Krish­naraj, Core Fac­ulty Mem­ber, TTSH

Dr.Jaideepraj Rao is a Con­sul­tant in the Upper Gas­troin­testi­nal &Min­i­mal Access Surgery unit in the Depart­ment of Gen­eral Surgery in Tan Tock Seng Hos­pi­tal and clin­i­cal Teacher in the Yong Loo Lin School of Med­i­cine, Tan Tock Seng Hos­pi­tal. Dr.Rao com­pleted his basic and advanced sur­gi­cal train­ing in Sin­ga­pore and did his fel­low­ship in advanced laparo­scopic and Robotic Surgery in Korea. He is a mem­ber of the Endo­scopic and Laparo­scopic Sur­geons of Asia and an inter­na­tional hon­orary mem­ber of the Korean Laparo­scopic Gas­troin­testi­nal Surgery soci­ety. Dr.Rao is also actively involved in clin­i­cal research and has sev­eral pub­li­ca­tions in peer-reviewed jour­nals. He is also actively involved in teach­ing under-graduate and post-graduate stu­dents of med­i­cine and surgery.