Clinical Professor Tan is a specialist in Infectious Diseases (ID), with a clinical and research focus on immunocompromised hosts and transplant infections. His extensive training includes both Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases, followed by a PhD in Microbiology. In 2012, he pioneered the ACGME-I Senior Residency Infectious Disease Program at SingHealth, serving as its first Program Director.
From 2014 to 2023, Prof Tan led the Department of Infectious Diseases at the Singapore General Hospital (SGH). During his tenure, he significantly enhanced clinical services for immunocompromised and transplant patients while also bolstering research collaborations with Duke-NUS Medical School and Duke University in Durham. He continues to serve as a Co-Director of the SingHealth Duke-NUS Infectious Disease Research Institute.
Prof Tan has been an examiner for all three medical schools in Singapore. He is the appointed Chair of the National Exit Exam Committee for Infectious Diseases since 2016. He also serves as a key member of the Ministry of Health’s Infectious Diseases Resident Advisory Committee and has also been a regular Advance Internal Medicine examiner. Dr Tan is also a Vice Chair in the Medicine ACP, leading the Clinical Services Improvement & Innovation office on top of his active roles in many hospital and cluster level committees.
In addition to his clinical and academic leadership, Prof Tan played a pivotal role in the national response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As Co-Chair of the SGH Campus Disease Outbreak Taskforce, he led the hospital's pandemic response, while also contributing to numerous national COVID-19 workgroups. He served as a part-time senior consultant with the Ministry of Health's Communicable Diseases and Public Health Group and was an expert panelist for the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) Medicines Advisory Committee, where he provided guidance on COVID-19 therapeutics and vaccine evaluations. He also chaired the Vaccine Injury Financial Assistance Program (VIFAP) until 2023.
Beyond his work in the pandemic response, Prof Tan has contributed his expertise to several other high-level committees, including the Ministry of Health’s Bioterrorism Expert Committee, the National Antimicrobial
Resistance Coordinating Committee (NAARC), and the National Advisory Committee on Transplant Services. He is now also a member of HSA’s Product Vigilance Advisory Committee and Medicines Advisory Committee. He was the immediate past Deputy Co-Chair of the MOH COVID-19 Transplantation Services Advisory Committee before it was stood down. He has been appointed the Clinical Advisor of the interim Communicable Disease Agency in MOH in 2023.
Prof Tan has also served on numerous advisory boards for industry partners in the infectious diseases sector, offering his insights on emerging therapeutics and treatments and has given lectures in his specialty domain in international conferences regularly.
In recognition of his many contributions, he has been awarded an Outstanding Faculty Award, a PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION MEDAL (BRONZE), a Singhealth GCEO Excellence Award (Outstanding Clinician Award), a Singhealth Quality Service Award and a Public Administration Medal (Silver)(COVID-19) in recent years.