Director & Consultant Surgeon, Capstone Colorectal Surgery Centre
Adjunct Assistant Professor, DUKE-NUS Graduate Medical School, Singapore
Consultant Surgeon, Department of Colorectal Surgery, Singapore General Hospital (SGH)
Visiting Consultant, Department of General Surgery, Changi General Hospital
Acting Director, Colorectal Cancer Molecular Genetics Research Laboratory, SGH
Acting Director, Colorectal Cancer Genomic Health Service, SGH
Clinical Lecturer, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS)
Co-Supervisor (PhD Program), Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Science, NUS
Adjunct Clinician Scientist, Institute of Bioengineering & Nanotechnology (IBN), A*Star
Dr Koh Poh Koon is the Medical Director and Consultant Colorectal Surgeon of Capstone Colorectal Surgery Centre at Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre. He continues service as a part-time Consultant Surgeon at the Department of Colorectal Surgery in Singapore General Hospital (SGH), and remains as the Acting Director of the Colorectal Cancer Molecular Genetics Research Laboratory as well as the founding Director of the Colorectal Cancer Genomic Health Service in SGH. He was a Visiting Consultant to the Division of Surgical Oncology at the National Cancer Centre of Singapore. Dr Koh is also appointed as a Visiting Consultant Surgeon to the Department of Surgery, Changi General Hospital where he continues to mentor surgical trainees undergoing Advanced Specialist Training in Colorectal Surgery. His surgical expertise relates to the use of minimally-invasive laparoscopic as well as robotics-assisted techniques for disorders of the colon and rectum, with emphasis on sphincter-preservation surgery. He has been an accredited Console Surgeon for the Da Vinci Robotic Surgical System since 2009. In recognition of his outstanding and exemplary clinical service, Dr Koh was awarded the SGH 10 years Long Service Award in 2007, SingHealth Quality Service Award (Silver Award) in 2010 and the SingHealth Service With A Heart Award in 2011.
He received advanced training in surgical treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases in Edinburgh, UK (2002 - 2003) as well as the renowned Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, USA (2006 - 2007) through a HMDP Scholarship funded by the Ministry of Health, Singapore. He was a member of the multidisciplinary care team at the Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Center in SGH and has lectured at national and international forums on various aspects of IBD surgery. He is a member of the Asia Pacific Consensus Workgroup on Management of Inflammatory Bowel Disease in 2011, formed under the auspices of the APAGE (Asia Pacific Association of Gastroenterology) and helped in the creation of the Asia Pacific Consensus statements for management of IBD in the Asia Pacific region.
He also has specialized interests in the clinical management and surgical treatment of patients and their families with Hereditary Colorectal Cancers. For this, he was awarded a second HMDP Scholarship in 2010 to pursue further training on “Clinical Gene Testing and Personalized Medicine in Colorectal Cancer Management” at the Genomic Medicine Institute, Cleveland Clinic (Ohio), USA. Following his return, he became the founding Director of the Colorectal Cancer Genomic Health Service at the Singapore General Hospital. This new service is a first in Asia and provided comprehensive multi-disciplinary care for those at high risk of developing colorectal cancers through the setting up of an integrated High Risk Family Clinic, Genetic Counseling Service and the initiation of clinical genetic testing services. Dr Koh has been invited to speak on this topic in national and international conferences.
Dr Koh is active in clinical and molecular research and has published widely in both clinical and basic science peer-reviewed journals. For his outstanding research work on rectal cancers, he was award the Young Investigator’s Award (Medical), at the 13th SGH Annual Scientific Meeting, in 2002. He has served as a reviewer for the Journal of Cancer Research and Therapeutics as well as Diseases of the Colon and Rectum. In addition, he served as a reviewer for the SGH Research Grant as well as an ad-hoc grant reviewer for the NMRC (National Medical Research Council) Grant.
He held academic appointment as Clinical Lecturer in the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (formerly Faculty of Medicine) at the National University of Singapore.* He is also appointed as an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School. As a Co-Supervisor of the Graduate Program, Dr Koh guides post-graduate students towards achieving their PhD thesis in the Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Science, National University of Singapore. He has special research interests in genomic and metabonomic profiling of colorectal cancers and has active research collaborations with various A*Star institutions on biomedical innovations and product development. He is also a member of the International Mismatch Repair Consortium (IMRC) researching into the genetic basis of Lynch Syndrome via a world-wide collaborrative research project. He was cited in Marquis’ Who’s Who in Science and Engineering (2006 Edition) in recognition of his achievements.
He has served on the Executive Committee of the Society of Colorectal Surgeons, Singapore (SCRS) and was elected as the Treasurer for 2009 – 2010. Dr Koh is currently a Committee Member of the Gastroenterological Society of Singapore (GESS). He is also a Council Member of the International Council of Coloproctology and a member of the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons (ASCRS) where he serves to promote international training and collaboration amongst Colorectal Surgeons.
Dr Koh has served in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) with distinction, having been awarded 1 Letter of Appreciation and 2 Letters of Commendation. A Guards Officer with Airborne qualifications, he was promoted to the rank of Major in 2009 and is presently the Commanding Officer (CO) of a Combat Service Support Battalion (CSSB). As a testament to his leadership skills and strategic thinking, he attended the 10th National Service Command and Staff Course (NS-CSC) in 2009 at the Singapore Armed Forces Command and Staff College, where he emerged as the Top Graduate, the first Medical Officer to ever top this pinnacle course for Officers in the SAF.
In recognition of his leadership abilities, Dr Koh was appointed as a Committee Member in the SingHealth Sub-committee on Leadership and Succession Planning, responsible for creation of a framework for leadership development in the entire SingHealth Cluster. He also served as a Committee Member in the SGH Clinical Research Committee, responsible for the research infrastructural development in the Outram Campus. In addition, he was a member of the SingHealth Tissue Repository Committee, with oversight responsibilities for tissue bio-banking and utilization of human biological specimens in translational research within SingHealth.
Dr Koh also contributed actively to society, serving as an Executive Committee Member at the Telok Blangah Dover Crescent Resident’s Committee since 2002 and is concurrently a Member of the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT). He was also appointed as an Assistant Liaison Officer (Singapore Police Force) for Telok Blangah Dover Crescent Neighborhood Watch Zone since 2002.
