Dr. James Tan

About

About Dr. James Tan Dr. James Tan is a neurosurgeon having more than 33 years of expertise. Services provided by him includes surgical treatment of degenerative spinal disorders of the cervical and lumbar spine, and performs minimally invasive treatment for these conditions including the use of radio frequency for neck and back pains. His clinical expertise also includes minimally invasive endoscopic transsphenoidal surgery, which is a procedure to remove pituitary tumours. In 1989, Dr. Tan graduated from the National University of Singapore (NUS) with a bachelor’s degree. In Glasgow and Edinburgh, UK, he later earned the title of fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in general surgery. After that, he began his training in neurosurgery at NNI at Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) in 1995. He left for London, United Kingdom, in 1997 to take part in a specialised training programme at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery and the Charing Cross Hospital. Later, in 1999, he earned a fellowship in surgical neurology in the UK. The Ministry of Health, Singapore granted Dr. Tan a Health Manpower Development Plan (HMDP) fellowship in 2003 to pursue additional subspecialist training in spinal surgery at the Schulthess Klinik in Zurich, Switzerland. He was the National Neuroscience Institute’s former director of the spine programme (NNI). He used artificial cervical disc implants for spinal surgery for the first time in Asia, and he has since routinely carried out such cervical spinal surgeries. In addition, he was one of the first surgeons to employ facet joint radiofrequency therapy for neck and back discomfort. Back and neck pain, disc replacements, prolapsed discs, meningiomas (tumours between the skull and brain), radicular pain (caused by injury to spinal nerve root), spine degeneration, fusion and pain, and spondylosis are among the other problems that Dr. Tan addresses (spine degeneration). Since 2000, he has performed more than 10,000 cervical spinal procedures. Dr. Tan frequently instructs and speaks at conferences in Asia and locally. Dr. James Tan is fluent in Cantonese, English, Hokkien, Mandarin, and Teochew.