Overview and Background of Dr Prema Raj

Dr. Prema Raj is a Consultant Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic and Liver Transplant Surgeon in Mount Elizabeth Hospital Singapore.

He graduated from the National University of Singapore (NUS) in 1982 and went on to do his Fellowship examinations in Edinburgh and Glasgow in 1987. He obtained a Master’s in Surgery from NUS in 1987.

From 1990 to 1992 he was awarded a HMDP (Health Manpower Development Plan) Scholarship, by the Ministry of Health Singapore, to train in Liver transplantation and Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery in France. From 1990 to 1991 he trained in Hospital Paul Brousse in Paris with Prof. Henri Bismuth. From 1991 to 1992 he worked with Prof. Didier Houssin in Hospital Cochin in Paris. During this time he was involved in pioneering work in Reduced Size Liver Grafts and Split Liver Grafts for Liver Transplantation in adults and children.

On return to Singapore in 1993, he started and developed the Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgical Service in Tan Tock Seng Hospital in Singapore.

In 1995 as a Consultant Surgeon in the Singapore General Hospital he started the Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgical Service there. In 1996 he began what was to become a long term collaboration with Prof. Koichi Tanaka, Head of Kyoto University Liver Transplant Team then, in Living Donor Liver Transplantation. He is currently involved in Living Donor Liver Transplantation in Japan (Kobe) and Cairo (International Medical Centre) as part of Prof. Tanaka’s team.

He started private practice in Hepato-Biliary and Pancreatic Surgery in 2000 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital. In 2004 he was asked by SingHealth to help start the Liver transplant Service in Singapore General Hospital. This became the 2nd Liver Transplant Centre in Singapore after NUH. As Surgical Director of Liver Transplantation in SGH he pioneered the Piggy Back Technique in Cadaveric Liver transplantation, the use of a new preservation solution and trained the surgeons there and gazetted them to perform transplants independently. He also started the Living Donor Program there with the help of Prof. Tanaka.

In January 2008 he intiated the Mount Elizabeth Hospital Liver Transplant Program. After a year of planning and training of all the staff in the hospital, the program has started as of January 2009.

His other interests are in developing minimal access surgery for the liver and he is pioneering robotic liver surgery in Singapore. His research interests are in developing a Bioartificial Liver.