John Kit Chung Tam

Research interests: thoracic surgery, translational research, lung cancer, cellular biology, extracellular vesicles, exosomes, microRNA, minimally invasive surgery, enhanced recovery protocols, opioid free analgesia

Dr Tam is Senior Consultant and founding Head of Thoracic Surgery at the National University Heart Centre, Singapore. He is also an Associate Professor of Surgery at the National University of Singapore Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. He obtained the Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry with First Class Honours (BSc Hon) and Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree at the University of Alberta, Canada, and underwent Thoracic Surgery residency training at the University of Manitoba in Canada. He also earned the Master of Education and Master of Science degrees from the University of Manitoba in Canada. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (FRCSC). He was a Clinical Instructor at the Advance Minimally Invasive Thoracic Surgery Centre at the University of Pittsburgh in USA.

Dr Tam specialises in performing advanced minimally invasive surgery using single-port techniques with Uniportal Video-Assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery (UVATS).  He was an early pioneer in UVATS lobectomy, performing the first UVATS lobectomy in 2009. He is a champion of enhanced recovery protocols and opioid free analgesia to maximise patients’ comfort, well-being and quality of life after surgery. He leads a high-performance team of thoracic surgeons with excellent surgical outcomes, and is passionate with educating the next generations of thoracic surgeons in Singapore and Asia.

Dr Tam specializes in translational clinical research encompassing two domains. The first is applied surgical science in the clinical domain, which includes minimally invasive techniques, enhanced recovery protocols, opioid free analgesia, pain reduction techniques, surgical devices and pneumo-static sealants. The second domain is translation of basic scientific research to clinical applications, which includes mapping of specialise cells in the lung, extracellular vesicles, exosomes, miRNA, and liquid biopsies for early lung cancer detection. He has many research publications in top high-impact international-refereed journals, including Science, Nature, Cell, Immunity, New England Journal of Medicine, Annals of Thoracic Surgery and other top journals in the field of Thoracic Surgery. 

Dr Tam is a passionate educator, accomplished faculty developer, and esteemed academic leader. He is currently the Chairman of the Cardio-Thoracic Surgery Residency Advisory Committee at the Ministry of Health, Singapore. He is the Chair of the Multi-disciplinary Lung and Thoracic Cancer Programme at the National Cancer Institute, Singapore. He holds numerous leadership roles and administrative appointments, and has won multiple awards in clinical excellence, research, and education.

Editorial Board (Cardiothoracic Surgery)
Terms of Appointment: November 2022 - October 2024;  November 2024 - October 2026