YM LIEW ORTHOPAEDIC SURGERY
Clinic Address: 820 Thomson Road Mount Alvernia Hospital Medical Centre D #06-52 Singapore 574623Clinic number: 6256 8742
Operating hours: Monday to Friday 9am – 1pm / 2pm – 5pm
Saturday 9am – 1pm
My 31 years in Medical and Orthopaedic practice has enabled me to witness the remarkable transformation of Orthopaedic Surgery from just an offshoot of General Surgery to super specialization. Treatments or surgeries which used to be considered futile or laden with complications are now almost done routinely. A better understanding of biomechanics, refinement of surgical techniques and implants together with the development of MIS surgeries have contributed significantly to superior results. Sub or super specialization which is in vogue is designed to counter the explosive growth of knowledge and skills in the hope that scaling of the learning curve can become easier with better focusing.
However, the fact remains that Singapore has only a small population and getting enough of patients with more exotic surgical indications to horn or even maintain the skills of super specialists can be a daunting task. Most revert to the practice of General Orthopaedic in the end especially in private practice and I am no exception.
My early training in Orthopaedics was very structured and broad base, thanks to all my great mentors. Supervision was very close and working hours insanely long. This has allowed and trained us to become highly versatile and proficient. I would like to think that have covered good grounds and am now comfortable with most if not all important aspects of the discipline. I have taken a special interest in the training of advance hand and upper limb surgeries under the tutelage of world-renowned professors and accomplished Hand Surgeons. Presently Hand Surgery has branched off on its own and the younger Orthopaedic Surgeons do not have much exposure to it anymore.
The long and arduous years into medicine have helped me come up with some philosophy which I will always hold dear. One is to recognize that no condition is too simple or easy to treat. A sick patient is a person with a disease condition, not just a condition, so treatment has to be holistic and humane. We should not only put in our best but we also got to recognize our own limitations and abilities. Know when to stop and call for help. Do not over promise or unnecessarily raise expectation as anything can happen in surgeries. Do not let money or politics come in to interfere with management decisions.
MBBS (NUS, Singapore) 1985
FRCSEd (Gen Surg) (RCS, Edinburgh, United Kingdom) 1990
FAMS (Orth Surg) (Academy of Medicine, Singapore) 1996
