Doctor's Profile

Website
https://www.tankysurgery.com.sg

Clinic

Dr Tan Kok Yang Colorectal & Surgical Specialist

Address

Mount Alvernia Hospital
820 Thomson Road
UCC Annex, Main Building
Singapore 574623

Clinic Hours

9am to 5pm (Mon, Tue, Thu & Fri)
9am to 1pm (Wed & Sat)

About

Dr Tan Kok Yang specialises in minimally invasive colorectal surgery with a special interest in low rectal cancers and advanced endoscopy including endoscopic submucosal dissection. He spent a year for surgical fellowship in Japan in 2008. He had maintained an active surgical practice during his 20 years of service as a specialist in a public hospital.

He is on the International Advisory Board of Digestive Endoscopy and on the Editorial Boards of European Journal of Surgical Oncology, World Journal of Gastroenterology and World Journal of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy.

He is the sole editor of the books “Colorectal Cancer in the Elderly” and “Transdisciplinary Perioperative Care in Colorectal Surgery” published by Springer in 2012 and 2014 respectively.

He is the main editor of the book “Mastering Geriatric Surgery” published by Springer Nature in 2025.

He is the Chair of the General Surgery Residency Advisory Committee of Singapore and member of the Specialist Accreditation Board of  Singapore. He also serves on multiple committees at the Ministry of Health of Singapore.

He served as the President of the Society of Colorectal Surgeons of Singapore from 2015 to 2017.

His other passion in the field of surgery is the improvement of outcomes in elderly patients. He was the Clinical Director of the Geriatric Surgery Service of Khoo Teck Puat Hospital from 2010 to 2026. He is actively involved in projects and clinical research on this challenging group of patients and is an invited member of the Society for Geriatric Medicine of Singapore. He founded The Geriatric Surgery Society of Singapore in 2017.

In public service, he served for 10 years as Head of Department of General Surgery at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital from 2012 to 2022. He also served in the senior management taking care of the hospital’s surgical services from 2017 to 2025. He was the surgical lead of the hospital during the COVID Pandemic. He was awarded the Public Administration Medal (Bronze) in 2023.

He is also a foster parent and actively advocates and supports foster parenting in Singapore. He is on the Board of Home for Good Singapore.