Dr Tan Khiaw Ngiap James

Dr James Tan is a urologist currently practicing in Mount Elizabeth Hospital and Gleneagles Hospital, Singapore. He specialises in genito-urinary cancer surgery, robotic & advanced laparoscopic surgery.

Dr Tan underwent specialist training in genito-urinary cancer surgery in the London Health Sciences Centre in Canada, and he attended the Chi Mei Foundation Medical Centre in Taiwan to specialise in laparoscopic urology. Here, he honed his laparoscopic skill by studying and performing laparoscopic partial cystectomy and enterocystoplasty in an animal model. He also participated in many laparoscopic radical cystectomy and nephro-ureterectomy in the clinical setting for patients with bladder and/or ureteric transitional cell carcinoma.

Prior to starting his private practice, Dr Tan was head of the Department of Urology at Tan Tock Seng Hospital and the lead surgeon (Urology) at TTSH's Centre for Advanced Laparoscopic Surgery. He was also the deputy director of TTSH’s Clinical Research Unit. He is currently a visiting consultant at the National University Hospital, and a gazetted renal transplant surgeon in the Ministry of Health Transplant Team.

Dr Tan has wide experience in managing benign and malignant conditions of the adrenal gland, kidney, bladder and prostate. He was the first in Singapore to perform laparoscopic radical prostatectomy in 2002, and he is a pioneer of procedures such as laparoscopic retroperitoneal radical nephrectomy, laparoscopic transposition of retrocaval ureter, laparoscopic repair of vesico-vaginal fistula and robotic ureteric re-implantation.

Dr James Tan has performed more than a few hundred robotic radical prostatectomies. He routinely performs bilateral nerve sparing and bladder neck sparing robotic prostatectomy to preserve potency and urinary continence. Where appropriate, he will perform additional bilateral pelvic lymphadenectomy. His other areas of expertise are in minimally invasive and endoscopic management of urinary stones and prostate diseases.

Dr James Tan has helped in the training of many junior surgeons in Singapore and the region through numerous surgical demonstrations, teleconferences and workshops. He has also done live surgery demonstrations in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Nepal and Thailand.

He is a life member of the Singapore Urological Association and had held the position of EXCO member and honorary treasurer. He is in the Ministry of Health’s Clinical Guideline Committee for Kidney Cancer as well as a member of Chapter of Urology Subspecialty Committees for Urologic Cancers, Endourology and Laparoscopy. Dr Tan is also a member of the American Urological Association, European Urology Association, Asian Society of Endourology, Asia-Pacific Society of Uro-Oncolog and Endoscopic & Laparoscopic Surgeons of Asia.