Doctor's Profile
DR TAN TECK WEI
MEDICAL BACKGROUND AND INTEREST
Dr Tan Teck Wei was formerly a Consultant Urologist and Director of Genitourinary Oncology at Tan Tock Seng Hospital where he specialized in the management of complex urological cancers including that of the prostate, bladder, kidney and testis. As a surgeon who is passionate about providing holistic and multidisciplinary care for patients with urological cancers, Dr Tan Teck Wei chaired the Urology tumour board in Tan Tock Seng Hospital and initiated these programmes and medical procedures;
- MRI-targeted Prostate Biopsy
He was instrumental in introducing MRI-targeted prostate biopsy in Tan Tock Seng Hospital, which has higher accuracy for the diagnosis of prostate cancer. - Transperineal Prostate Biopsy under Local Anaesthesia
Transperineal prostate biopsies can now be performed easily in the clinic instead of the operating theatre, and has much lower infection rates compared to the traditional transrectal biopsies. - Retzius-Sparing Robot-Assisted Radical Prostatectomy
This is a technically challenging modification of the conventional robot-assisted radical prostatectomy, but benefits patients as they have a much higher chance of regaining their urinary continence quickly after surgery. - Robot-Assisted Cystectomy/Anterior Pelvic Exenteration with Intracorporeal Urinary Diversion
This is a complex surgery for bladder cancer but has a number of benefits for patients, including reduced blood loss and less postoperative pain for patients. - Enhanced Recovery after Cystectomy Programme
Through a dedicated pathway, the management of patients undergoing cystectomy is standardised, leading to improved outcomes for patients.
During his time in Tan Tock Seng Hospital, he also regularly collaborated for pelvic exenteration cases for complex gastrointestinal cancers.
Dr Tan Teck Wei is a strong advocate for patients with urological cancers and mentored the TTSH prostate cancer support group, organizing monthly meetings with prostate cancer patients and providing educational talks and emotional support. He was the chairman of the 2020 Singapore Cancer Society (SCS) Prostate Cancer Awareness Campaign, and is a committee member of the SCS Prostate Cancer Survivorship Advisory Panel.
ACADEMIA AND INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION
Dr Tan Teck Wei graduated from the National University of Singapore (NUS) in 2005 and completed Specialist Urology Training at both Tan Tock Seng Hospital and Singapore General Hospital in 2015. He won a number of awards during his training, including the European Board of Urology Book Prize and the College of Surgeons Gold Medal for being the best Urology trainee. From 2017 to 2018, he completed advanced Fellowship training in Robotic surgery and Uro-oncology at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals in London, United Kingdom. He was the first non-UK trained Urologist to be awarded this prestigious fellowship, which is accredited by both the Royal College of Surgeons of England and the British Association of Urological Surgeons (BAUS). Guy’s Hospital is one of the largest urological cancer centres in the United Kingdom and performs the most robotic surgeries in the country. He was trained in Open, Laparoscopic and Robot-assisted cancer surgeries including Cystectomy, Prostatectomy, Intracorporeal Urinary Diversion, Pelvic Exenteration and Nephrectomy/Nephroureterectomy. Dr Tan Teck Wei was an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the National University of Singapore (NUS) Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and was also a Clinical Teacher at the Nanyang Technological University-Imperial College London’s Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine.
He has also been part of the organizing committee and teaching faculty for several regional conferences including the Asian Congress of Robotic and Laparoscopic Surgery, Asian Summit on Robotic Surgery and Urofair. Dr Tan Teck Wei is one of the respected specialists in uro-oncology in Singapore and has a strong research interest in the minimally-invasive management of bladder and prostate cancer, prostate cancer diagnostics and enhanced recovery after cystectomy. He was the lead author for the paper that reported on the first and largest series of MRI-targeted prostate biopsies in Singapore.
As an expert in the field of MRI-targeted prostate biopsies, he is an advisor for the Ministry of Health’s Agency for Care Effectiveness, which has successfully obtained approval for this type of biopsy to be the standard of care for the evaluation of men suspected of having prostate cancer in Singapore.
Dr Tan Teck Wei is also an international consulting editor for the Indian Journal of Urology, and is a reviewer for numerous medical journals including the British Journal of Urology International, Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases, and the Asia-Pacific Journal of Clinical Oncology.