Alumni Profile: Dr Ken Chua’s Journey from Student to Surgeon
 | By Sanjay Devaraja, Editor, LKCMedicine's Redefine Newsletter |
Dr Ken Chua was fresh from National Service when he was given the option to disrupt and enter LKCMedicine in 2014. Immersing himself fully in the vibrant university environment, he actively participated in hall life, contributed to the NTU Welfare Services Club, and engaged in both local and overseas community involvement projects (CIP). After graduating in 2019, he completed his housemanship, gaining experience through various clinical postings before returning to fulfil the remainder of his National Service.
Currently, Dr Chua is pursuing a surgical career as a junior resident in the NHG Health General Surgery (GS) residency programme, where he continues to build on his commitment to medicine and service.
We speak to Dr Chua on his experiences navigating the challenges of surgical training, the values that drive his dedication to patient care, and how LKCMedicine has shaped his approach to medicine.
What inspired you to pursue a career in medicine (General Surgery), and how did your time at LKCMedicine shape this decision?
As I journeyed through medical school and later graduated, I always thought I would almost certainly pursue a non-surgical track, specifically in internal medicine. Back then I found those topics much more interesting and couldn’t really get a good grasp of the surgical topics – which made me not enjoy surgery even more. Nevertheless, many seniors and mentors advised us to keep an open mind and take our time to explore before deciding on what residency we’d like to pursue.
After starting work as a house officer (HO) and rotating through both surgery and internal medicine, I realised there was more to surgery than what I experienced as a student. That piqued my interest. I gradually grew to enjoy the pace and intensity that came with working in surgery and how closely we have to work as a team – something which LKCMedicine well prepared us for.
Please share a defining moment during your time at LKCMedicine or residency that affirmed your choice of specialty.
I would say there were two people who truly inspired me and influenced my decision to pursue surgery – both are now my seniors (and bosses) in the same surgery residency.
Dr Marc Ong was one of my consultant bosses back in my first HO posting at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH) General Surgery. I recall I was just trying my best to get by the posting and not get into any trouble. Every Wednesday the team would have a team lunch together and on one of the Wednesdays, Dr Ong asked me to join him to drive out and collect the food for the team.
In the car ride to the restaurant, he shared not only his thoughts on what it takes to become a surgeon and the hardships that will come with the training, but also the sense of fulfilment that comes with it. As we reached the restaurant, he ended the conversation sharing that he felt general surgery might be a good fit for me if I was willing to take up the challenge. I remember being very surprised by the comment, but it stuck with me ever since and made me think more about a career in surgery. Since then, Dr Ong has become a close mentor of mine whom I look up to very much and we both share a hobby in tennis which has been great as well.
My other source of inspiration would have to be Dr Joel Wong, who belongs to the pioneer batch of LKCMedicine. He was my orientation group leader when I was in my first year of study at LKCMedicine. He later also became my house family senior and a very dear friend of mine as we journeyed through medical school together.
Watching him thrive in GS residency truly inspired me. Dr Wong also believed I would fit well into GS and constantly encouraged me to work towards residency. Slowly but surely, I grew to love surgery as well.
Please describe a particularly complex case you have managed, and what you learned from that experience?
No two patients are the same – and many a time, we often must juggle the surgical and medical complexities that come together with the patient’s condition.
When a patient involved in a serious trauma is admitted to the emergency department, we must work quickly to evaluate for life-threatening injuries and administer prompt treatment or even bring into emergent surgery depending on the severity of the injuries. In trauma patients with injuries to multiple organs, we often triage and coordinate among various disciplines as well to provide holistic care for the patient.
Managing cancers is another major part of surgery. As surgeons, we often work closely with both our peers in medical oncology, radiology, pathology, radiation oncology to provide the best management plan for our patients with cancers. This also means that we must know when not to offer surgery but to trial other therapeutic or palliative options.
Other than always working in teams in surgery, three key lessons I have are that we must be:
1. prepared to adapt quickly to changing situations,
2. in control of our emotions to work efficiently and effectively during high stress situations,
3. and, resilient and self-aware so that we can reflect and continue to improve.
How has NHG Health supported your professional growth and development?
I have been very fortunate to meet many nurturing mentors and like-minded peers during my time working in NHG and studying in LKCMedicine. Having these mentors to share their knowledge and dedicate time to my growth really helped me to identify my shortcomings in a safe environment and work on improving myself while continuing to grow not only as a surgeon but a person as well. I am also thankful for my batchmates and seniors in residency who have been a constant source of support as we go through our different postings together.
Looking ahead, what are your aspirations within your career, whether in clinical practice, education, or research?
I hope to hone my surgical skills, clinical acumen, and work to becoming a good surgeon that my peers would entrust their family members with should they need surgery. I also feel very strongly about education and have been regularly returning to LKCMedicine to teach the juniors – just as my seniors did for me. I see it as a way of giving back to the School and I hope to be able to inspire my juniors to do the same when they graduate and step into our shoes eventually.
Why should future applicants consider pursuing medicine at LKCMedicine?
LKCMedicine has a great curriculum that is constantly looking to improve. We truly believe we have many great dedicated tutors who actively make themselves available to the students whenever someone needs help. The Team-Based Learning (TBL) teaching pedagogy is unique and will fit well with learning styles for many incoming students. I also feel LKCMedicine has a strong teaching culture, be it among the students or from the alumni as well. Having worked in the field for several years now, I can confidently say that LKCMedicine prepared me sufficiently well for working life as a HO.
LKCMedicine graduates are praised for their clinical reasoning and communication skills. Share with us more on how the School prepare you for the demands of residency.
We really have to thank Dr Tanya Tierney (Assistant Dean, Clinical Communication) and her team for the hard work they spent in our early schooling years to drill in the importance of good communication skills – something that is often overlooked and not necessarily intuitive in our line of work. Difficult conversations are an increasingly common situation we will find ourselves in and having exposure to these scenarios as a student provided insights on what to expect in complex situations. Being in a safe environment to take on the scenarios allowed me to learn from my mistakes and equip myself with the appropriate tools for future conversations after starting work. Thanks to our clinical tutors, regular TBL sessions and high-quality interactive discussions, I’ve got a good foundation to start building my clinical acumen and reasoning once I entered the working world.
Any other interesting experiences or thoughts/opinions you would like to share?
I really miss my time at LKCMedicine and would love to do it all over again if I could! I’ve been fortunate to join on overseas medical mission work, experience hospital medicine in various countries including Ireland, India, and Taiwan. This has expanded my horizons working with different health populations. Many of my closest friendships today have all come from my time at LKCMedicine and I am forever grateful for the opportunities and experiences I’ve gained.
