Dr Chan Hwei Wuen is a Senior Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon in the Department of Ophthalmology at National University Hospital (NUH) and Alexandra Hospital (AH). She serves as the Ophthalmology Lead at the National University Centre for Genomic Medicine (NUGEM). In addition, Dr Chan holds joint academic and research appointments as Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS), and Senior Principal Scientist at the Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology, A*STAR.
From 2021 to 2024, Dr Chan was the Programme Director of the Ophthalmology Residency Programme at the National University Health System (NUHS), leading the transition from ACGME International to APMES (Accreditation in Postgraduate Medical Education in Singapore), with the programme receiving the full accreditation. She remains actively involved in both undergraduate and postgraduate medical education and has been recognised for teaching excellence with the NUS Medical Society Outstanding Tutor Award and the NUS Special Recognition Award for undergraduate medical teaching.
Dr Chan received formal medical education at the University College London (UCL) with undergraduate exposure to Ophthalmology at Moorfields Eye Hospital and the Institute of Ophthalmology. She completed residency training in Ophthalmology at the NUH and served as the Chief Resident.
She was the recipient of the MOH Health Manpower Development Plan (HMDP) fellowship award to pursue advanced subspeciality training in the UK and Belgium. Her time at Moorfields Eye Hospital with Professors Alan Bird, Andrew Webster, Michel Michaelides and Omar Mahroo was focused on paediatric and adult Ophthalmic Genetics. At the Ghent University Hospital, Belgium, she trained under Prof Bart Leroy and was involved in several gene therapy clinical trials including Luxturna® and Sepofarsen for treatment of biallelic RPE65- and CEP290-associated Leber Congenital Amaurosis (LCA), respectively.
Dr Chan is a specialist in both medical and surgical retina with a special interest in Inherited Retinal Diseases (IRD) and Ophthalmic Genetics. She currently leads a dedicated IRD service at NUH for local and international patients. She is the founding chair of the Asia Pacific Inherited Eye Disease (APIED) network, which connects IRD specialists around the Asia Pacific region, fostering innovation through collaboration. Her main research areas include phenotype-genotype correlation studies in IRD with a special interest in ABCA4-related retinopathy for which she was awarded the NMRC Clinician Scientist Individual Research Grant New Investigator Grant (CS-IRG-NIG), RNA-based and cell-based therapeutic for retinal degeneration. Dr Chan is also the founding member of the EURETINA IRD & Paediatric Retina Subspecialty Group and Fellow of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists (UK). Aside from her sub-specialty interests, Dr Chan also performs complex cataract surgery.
