Introduction

Dr Benjamin Chua is currently Medical Director and Senior Consultant Vascular Surgeon at the Vascular & Interventional Centre (VIC) with outpatient clinics at Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital and Farrer Park Hospital, Singapore. As of April 2020, VIC has opened its third and largest clinic which also houses a day surgery centre to perform vascular and interventional procedures. This flagship is located at Novena Specialist Centre.

Prior to setting up the VIC, Dr Chua was the Founding Head of the Department of Vascular Surgery, Singapore General Hospital(SGH), the first department of its kind in Singapore dedicated to caring for patients with vascular diseases. He was also concurrently Senior Consultant Surgeon and Director, Endovascular Surgery.

Dr Chua graduated with MBBS from the National University of Singapore. In 2001, he was awarded the Singapore National Medical Research Council (NMRC) Fellowship Training Award, to pursue the Clinical Research Training Programme at Duke University School of Medicine, obtaining his MHSc in Clinical Research in 2003. While at Duke, he was also a research fellow at the Duke Clinical Research Institute, focusing on lower limb peripheral artery disease in the dialysis dependent populations and the development of randomized trials in surgery.

He returned to Singapore in 2003 to complete his basic and advanced training in General and Vascular Surgery at SGH. In 2008, he obtained Specialty Accreditation from the Ministry of Health, Singapore and was admitted as a Fellow of The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. In 2009, Dr Chua was awarded the Singapore Ministry of Health – NHG HMDP Award to pursue sub-specialty training in Advanced Endovascular Surgery in Melbourne, Australia. He trained as a Fellow under the tutelage of Professor Michael Denton, an expert in advanced aortic stent grafts and fenestrated devices. Dr Chua was also the Honorary Clinical Fellow in Vascular Surgery at St Vincent’s and Epworth Hospitals, Melbourne.

Dr Chua is a regional proctor and case demonstrator, travelling regularly in the Asia-Pacific region to teach and proctor complex aortic stenting, peripheral vascular interventions, vein surgery and vascular malformation treatment. He is also regularly invited to be faculty and speaker at regional and international vascular conferences. Dr Chua also travels to neighbouring regional countries to consult on patients and assist in surgeries.

Dr Chua’s active research interests include the development of novel surgical devices. He is the recipient of competitive grants from A*STAR/ SERC and SMART. He also holds patents and invention disclosures for several vascular surgery devices. While at SGH, he was the Deputy Director for Device Development under the Academic Clinical Programme in Surgery and also sat on the SingHealth Centralized Institutional Review Board. He has written book chapters and has published research articles in international vascular surgery journals.

In his clinical practice, Dr Chua’s passions are in treatments of aortic aneurysm, diabetic limb salvage, stroke prevention (carotid surgery), vein diseases, dialysis access issues and vascular malformations. Dr Chua has also kept up-to-date with the latest developments in endovascular techniques and to this end is well versed in employing these techniques to successfully treat conditions such as Pelvic Congestion Syndrome , Uterine Fibroids, Erectile Dysfunction and Venous Leak as well as Benign Enlarged Prostate Disease. His drive is to provide effective treatment for patients suffering from vascular related health problems.

Dr Chua is also very passionate about his patients. From 2011-2015 he received several patient quality care awards from SingHealth including the Heart of Gold and the Singapore Health Care Quality Gold and Silver awards. Through VIC, he hopes to provide dedicated personalised care to patients with the goal of achieving optimal patient outcomes.