Dr Marcus Tan Chiang Lee

Dr Tan completed his MBBS at the National University of Singapore in 2000 under a Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) Medicine Scholarship. He was trained in Aviation Medicine at the University of London where he was awarded the Stewart Memorial Prize for topping his Aviation Medicine cohort in 2003. Subsequently, he pursued Ophthalmology and was awarded his Masters in Ophthalmology in Edinburgh in 2008. As one of few specialists on a dual specialisation track, he was certified both as a specialist in Aviation Medicine in 2010 and a specialist in Ophthalmology in 2013 by the Singapore Medical Council. He is now a member of the Royal College of Surgeons (Edinburgh), a fellow of the College of Ophthalmologists (Singapore) and a fellow of the College of Public Health & Occupational Physicians (Singapore).

He is also concurrently a Member and Clinical Assessor of the Civil Aviation Medical Board, Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore; an exit examiner for the Aviation Medicine exit exams; a medical student admission assessor at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore and a Consultant in both Aviation Medicine and Ophthalmology to the Singapore Armed Forces.

Prior to joining Raffles Hospital, Dr Tan was a Consultant in Ophthalmology at Ng Teng Fong General Hospital (NTFGH) and Jurong Medical Centre (JMC), Head of the SAF Vision Performance Centre, Clinical Director of Jurong Medical Centre and the associate programme director of NUHS residency Ophthalmology programme at NTFGH Campus. He has been practicing ophthalmology since 2005 and has the unique experience of training in all the 3 major eye departments at NUH/TTSH/SNEC. This has allowed him to be trained in the clinical best practices of all the major restructured hospital ophthalmology specialist providers in Singapore.

On completion of his ophthalmology specialist training in 2013, Dr Tan was also an honorary research fellow with Singapore Eye Research Institute working on a glaucoma research project on early detection of glaucoma in the community prior to joining NTFGH/JMC as a Consultant in Ophthalmology. Besides providing specialist clinical services, he was the medical retina sub-specialty lead at NTFGH/JMC and had developed evidence based medical retina department level treatment protocols for NTFGH/JMC patients. He was also roped into the NUHS (JurongHealth Campus) Eye Service Operations team to help in the development of new clinical workflows for seamless delivery of inter-discipline specialist care at NTFGH/JMC, the launch of specialist eye services at the new NTFGH campus and the development of the eye specific electronic medical records modules for enhanced user experience in a busy clinical/OT setting.

During his specialist training, Dr Tan served as the chief registrar at the NUHS Eye Department and was tasked to organize and coordinate regional surgical teaching conferences, regional socio-civic missions and local ophthalmology screening programmes due to his rich operational experience. His leadership potential was recognized and he went on to hold clinical leadership and education appointments in the restructured hospitals as the Clinical Director of Jurong Medical Centre. From 2016 to 2017, he oversaw the transformation of JMC into a sustainable ambulatory surgical centre with strategically chosen outpatient specialist clinics.

When he was in SAF, Dr Tan had also completed leadership appointments as Commanding Officer of 1 Medical Squadron (CO 1MS) and Commander of Military Medicine Institute. As CO 1MS, he led 1MS to Full Operational Capability for SAF, developed and implemented integrated training between SAF and Singapore’s restructured hospitals, maintained 1MS as a High Readiness Core operational SAF unit in support of our Nation Search And Rescue operations and transformed 1MS Medical Centre into the top SAF Medical Centre. As COMD MMI, he oversaw the primary healthcare, emergency evacuation and specialist healthcare operations in all SAF medical/dental centres and provided operational medical support for the entire SAF.

On the education front, he has been an examiner for the aviation medicine exit exams since 2016 and served as the associate programme director of NUHS residency Ophthalmology programme at NTFGH Campus. He developed the residency training programme at NTFGH to allow NUHS residents to come to NTFGH for their vitreoretinal residency rotation. He has also written several research papers in both aviation and clinical ophthalmology with an interest in refractive surgery and visual performance treatment strategies for high myopias.