Adj Assoc Prof Chua Hui Wen

MBBS (S'pore), MRCS (Edinburgh), MMed (S'pore), FRCS (Edinburgh)

Consultant

Sengkang General Hospital

Specialty: General Surgery, Breast Surgery

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About

Education and Training

Professional Appointments and Committee Memberships

Awards

Publications

Conditions Treated By This Doctor

3D-breast Tomosynthesis Atypical Hyperplasia Benign Breast Change and Symptoms Benign Breast Diseases Benign Breast Neoplasms Breast Cancer Breast Cancer (Breast Health) Breast Cancer (Diagnosis to Treatment) Breast Cancer (Early Detection and Screening) Breast Clinical Assessment Breast Infection Breast Lumps Breast Radiological Evaluation Breast Reconstruction Breast Screening - Self-Exam and Mammogram Breast Surgery Duct Ectasia Fibroadenoma Fibrocystic Change Hereditary Breast Cancer Syndromes High Risk Breast Changes Intraductal Papillomas Lobular Carcinoma in Situ Mastitis

Clinical Interests

Breast Surgery

Clinical Appointments

Consultant

SingHealth Duke-NUS Breast Centre

Consultant

Breast Service

Consultant

Department of Surgery

About

Dr Chua Hui Wen is a Consultant in Breast Surgery, Department of General Surgery, Sengkang General Hospital and a member of the SingHealth Duke-NUS Breast Centre. She sees patients with both benign and malignant breast diseases. She is experienced in performing image-guided breast biopsies, localization excisions and uses innovative techniques like minimally invasive breast surgeries and oncoplastic breast surgeries to improve the quality of surgeries to achieve both excellent oncological outcomes and enhanced cosmesis. She was awarded the prestigious Health Manpower Development Plan (HMDP) scholarship by Ministry of Health to further hone these skills in Kameda Medical Centre in Japan in 2023, a renowned breast centre focusing on advanced breast surgery techniques including oncoplastic and minimally invasive surgery. She is also equally adept at general surgical procedures such as endoscopy, open and minimally invasive gallbladder and hernia surgeries.

Dr Chua graduated from Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS), and entered the highly competitive general surgery residency programme after the completion of housemanship. She received her general surgery and initial breast subspecialist residency training in the National University Hospital of Singapore (NUHS). In this period, she completed her membership examination of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (Surgery) and obtained the Master of Medicine (Surgery) from the National University of Singapore. She is an accredited Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (General Surgery), after passing her exit examinations and completing residency training. Thereafter, she started practising at Sengkang General Hospital and went for formal fellowship training at the prestigious renowned Kameda Medical Centre in Japan, in minimally invasive breast surgery and oncoplastic breast surgery. Since her return, she has frequently been invited to participate as a faculty instructor to help train others in advanced breast surgery. She is also currently the programme director of the Sengkang General Hospital Advanced Breast Fellowship Programme (Minimally Invasive Breast Surgery and Oncoplastic Breast Surgery).

She is also heavily involved in medical student and postgraduate residency education, being the adjunct education lead for Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. This is in addition to her faculty duties in Lee Kong Chian Medical School, Duke-NUS Medical School, SingHealth Post-Graduate Year 1 Programme, and SingHealth General Surgery Residency Programme. She is instrumental in the set-up of the hospital clinician programme for general surgery and is the current programme director. She believes there are many routes for doctors to contribute to general surgery, be it via residency or the hospital clinician programme, and is deeply passionate about creating these opportunities. She is also a key personnel in quality improvement projects in the institution to reduce the perennial bed crunch and increasing the efficacy of day surgery.

Dr Chua strongly believes in working closely alongside patients and other professionals in a multi-disciplinary team to create individualised treatment plans for patients, targeting key areas ranging from clinical to psycho-social aspects, for the best quality of life possible. Besides the top priority of oncological safety, she considers all aspects of patients’ needs including aesthetic cosmesis, quality of life, function and sensation. She tailors each individual patient’s needs specifically during her thorough consultations, having won many awards for her bedside manners. This is aided by her fluency in English and Mandarin, proficiency in Japanese, as well as dialects such as Cantonese and Hokkien.

Education and Training

MBBS (Singapore)
MRCS (Edinburgh)
MMed (Surgery, Singapore)
FRCS (Edinburgh)

Professional Appointments and Committee Memberships

Adjunct Assistant Professor, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore
Clinical Assistant Professor, Duke-NUS Medical School
Clinical Teacher, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine
Programme Director, Hospital Clinician Programme (General Surgery), Sengkang General Hospital
Programme Director, Sengkang General Hospital Advanced Breast Fellowship Programme (Minimally Invasive Breast Surgery and Oncoplastic Breast Surgery)
Associate Programme Director, SingHealth Post-Graduate Year 1 (PGY1) Programme
Physician Faculty, SingHealth General Surgery Residency Programme
Clinical Teacher, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine
Fellow, Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh

Awards

Health Manpower Development Plan (HMDP) for “Advanced Breast Surgery: Minimally invasive breast surgery”
Singapore Health Quality Service Awards 2024 – Gold Award
COVID-19 Resilience Award 2024
Best Quality Improvement Projects Award March 2021: Pop and Squeeze Model for Healthy patients with abscesses for elective drainage (SKH)

Publications

HW Chua, Zhou HJ, Khoo CM, Shabbir A, Lomanto D, So JB. Attitudes and Concerns of Diabetic patients towards Bariatric Surgery as Treatment of Diabetes. Ann Acad Med Singapore 2016 Nov; 45(11):495-506.

NQ Pang, HW Chua, GW Kim, MY Tan, M N D B Abdul-Aziz, RWQ Xu, E Chen, SC Teo, NXN Khoo, D Lomanto, BC Tai, J BY So, CS Chong. Structured Training for Lap Appendectomy for Residents (STAR Trial) – A Randomized Pilot Study. Journal of Surgical Research June 2021 (268); 363-370 https://doi.org/10.1016/jss2021.06.073

Ngaserin S, Chua HW, Chew MH, Tan BKT. A tripartite approach can seek to optimize breast cancer management during a pandemic - Real-Time experience of a developing breast oncology unit in Singapore. Breast J. 2020;10.1111/tbj.13961. doi:10.1111/tbj.13961

QT Teo, HW Chua, T Kabir. Not your usual painful groin lump: De Garengeot’s Hernia. Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology May 2020. https//doi.org/10.1016/j.cgh.2020.05.006

S. Ngaserin, HW Chua, TM Mirpuri. FDG-PET/CT unilateral breast enlargement and diffuse hypermetabolism related to unilateral lactation in a patient with primary biliary cirrhosis. Breast J. 2020;10.1111/tbj.13906. doi:10.1111/tbj.13906

YF Fong, HW Chua, Singh C, SH Tan. Diagnostic Dilemma: Acute abdomen from Ruptured Corpus Luteum requiring surgical intervention in young women. Thai Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology April – June 2013; Vol.21, No. 2

COVIDSurg Collaborative, GlobalSurg Collaborative. Timing of surgery following SARS-CoV-2 infection: an international prospective cohort study. Anaesthesia June 2021; 76(6):748-758

COVIDSurg Collaborative, GlobalSurg Collaborative. SARS-CoV-2 vaccination modelling for safe surgery to save lives: data from an international prospective cohort study. Br J Surg. 2021 Sep 27;108(9):1056-1063. doi: 10.1093/bjs/znab101. PMID: 33761533; PMCID: PMC7995808.

COVIDSurg Collaborative Co-authors. Machine learning risk prediction of mortality for patients undergoing surgery with perioperative SARS-CoV-2: the COVIDSurg mortality score. Br J Surg. 2021 Jul 6:znab183. doi: 10.1093/bjs/znab183. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34227657; PMCID: PMC8344569

COVIDSurg Collaborative, GlobalSurg Collaborative. Effects of pre-operative isolation on postoperative pulmonary complications after elective surgery: an international prospective cohort study. Anaesthesia Nov 2021;76(11):1454-1464

COVIDSurg Collaborative, GlobalSurg Collaborative. SARS-CoV-2 infection and venous thromboembolism after surgery: an international prospective cohort study. Anaesthesia Jan 2022;77(1):28-39

BJS Commission Team. BJS commission on surgery and perioperative care post-COVID-19. Br J Surg. 2021 Oct 8:znab307. doi: 10.1093/bjs/znab307. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34624081

WPN Seng, HW Chua, BC Toh. An Unusual Cause of Gastric Outlet Obstruction. Gastroenterology 2022/8/1. Vol 163 (2); e6-e9

T Kabir, N L Syn, V Shaw, YH A Tan, HW Chua, WL L Ong, H F Koh, J Ladlad, J B Barco, P Wang, U Kui, A Blasiak, J J Zhao, D Ho, JH Kam, S Ngaserin Defining the optimal time to appendectomy: A step toward precision surgery. Surgery 172 (3), 798-806