About Us

Dr Barrie Tan

Consultant ENT Specialist in Singapore

MBBS (Singapore), MMed (ENT) (Singapore)
MRCS (Edinburgh, UK), FAMS (Otolaryngology)

Dr Barrie Tan has over 20 years of experience in the field of ENT, with subspecialised expertise in the field of hearing loss and cochlear implants. Other areas of interest include snoring and sleep apnea, endoscopic ear surgery; and he is skilled in the care of patients both young and old alike.

Prior to setting up his own clinic, Dr Tan was the Head of the ENT Department at the Singapore General Hospital (SGH) – the largest ENT department in Singapore – as well as the Director of the Centre for Hearing and Ear Implants at SGH.

Vision and Values

Children affectionately call him “Uncle Dr Barrie” when coming for consults and adult patients find his demeanour reassuring and confident. Dr Barrie Tan feels privileged to be a part of every human recovery and healing process. He understands that when patients come to see him, they are feeling unwell and sometimes feeling vulnerable and scared too.

Thus, he places enormous emphasis on listening carefully, to understand deeply the concerns of his patients. This enables him to make accurate diagnoses and allows him to deliver his treatment in a compassionate and comforting manner.

Dr Barrie Tan strongly advocates for modern techniques of surgery and medicine to deliver effective remedies for his patients. He understands that modern medicine is rapidly advancing and modern developments lead to significant benefits over older treatment methods. He invests the time to keep himself updated on medical and surgical innovations, all these for his patients’ benefit.

Dr Barrie Tan’s compassion for and dedication to his patients has led him to establish Barrie Tan Head & Neck Surgery, a warm and welcoming clinic where patients are accorded dignity and respect, given rapid access to quality diagnostic testing and where relevant and suitable medical treatment is administered in partnership with an informed patient and his family.

President’s Scholar & Other Awards

Dr Barrie Tan is a President’s Scholar. He was awarded the prestigious President’s Scholarship from the Public Service Commission in 1994 for his stellar academic results and all-rounded performance throughout his school days. This is testament to his underlying ethos of giving of his very best in all his various endeavours, both academic and extra-curricular ones alike.

Dr Barrie Tan subsequently studied Medicine at the National University of Singapore, where he graduated top of his Medical School Class, winning the Gibb’s Gold Medal (First in General Proficiency). He was the only student of his cohort to be awarded the Dean’s List Award every year.

He subsequently completed ENT Specialist Training in Singapore and won the Ministry of Health’s Health Manpower Development Plan Award for a year-long subspeciality Fellowship in Otology, Hearing Implant, Neurotology and Skull Base Surgery at the prestigious Ear Science Institute Australia from 2010-2011.

Head of Department at SGH ENT

From 2013 to 2019, Dr Barrie Tan was the Head, Department of Otolaryngology (ENT) in Singapore General Hospital. This is the largest and busiest ENT Department amongst all the public hospitals in Singapore, performing the largest number of surgeries and taking care of both paediatric and adult patients.

When he was first appointed, Dr Barrie Tan was the youngest Head of Department in Singapore General Hospital at that time. For over six years, he helmed the largest ENT department in Singapore, growing its various services and leading it to prominence in the Southeast Asian region, establishing it’s signature “SGH ENT Instructional Course Fortnight” program.

Under his watch, the department grew in number and stature and developed multidisciplinary teams to care for special medical conditions such as the first SingHealth-Duke NUS Head & Neck Centre, as well as a multidisciplinary service specialising in giddiness management.

Subspecialty in Cochlear Implants

Dr Barrie Tan became the Director of the Centre for Hearing and Ear Implants, Singapore General Hospital in 2012, and held that position till 2019. This is the largest cochlear implant unit in Singapore, providing the entire range of Audiological and Hearing Rehabilitation services and which has performed the highest number of cochlear implant surgeries in a single centre in Singapore.

He has personally performed hundreds of cochlear implant surgeries and is highly sought-after as a cochlear implant surgeon both locally and regionally, performing and supervising cochlear implant surgeries in countries like Vietnam, Bangladesh and Indonesia.

Dr Barrie Tan is passionate about bringing surgical innovations and updates in medical technology to Singapore and the Southeast Asian region. He firmly believes in enabling patients to receive the most ideal and up to date approved surgical and medical technology solutions for their various ailments. He is an early adopter of approved innovative surgical techniques and surgical hearing implants.

In particular, Dr Barrie Tan performed the earliest surgeries and implantations of the following cochlear implant devices in Southeast Asia:

Advanced Bionics 3D Cochlear Implant (2019)
Advanced Bionics Ultra Cochlear Implant (2017)

Further to that, Dr Barrie Tan performed the earliest surgeries and implantations of the following specialised hearing implants in Singapore:

Cochlear ATTRACT Bone Anchored Hearing Aid Implant (2015)
Cochlear Carina Implant (2014)
Cochlear CI 532 cochlear implant (2018)
Advanced Bionics Slim J cochlear implant (2018)
Advanced Bionics Ultra 3D Cochlear Implant (2019)

Since starting out in private practice in 2019, Dr Barrie Tan has continued his pursuit of offering the very latest hearing implant surgeries and hearing implant technologies to the patients served in the private hospitals in Singapore.

He performed the earliest Vibrant Soundbridge surgery in a private hospital in Singapore. He also performed cochlear implant surgery for single sided deafness in a five year old child, which is believed to be the earliest such surgery for paediatric single sided deafness in the Southeast Asian region.

Subspecialty in Endoscopic Ear Surgery

Dr Barrie Tan believes in constantly improving and innovating his approaches to surgical problems in order to achieve the best possible outcomes for his patients. Not satisfied with mastering surgical techniques learnt during his year-long HMDP Fellowship, he diligently enhanced his surgical repertoire by seeking out hands-on surgical training opportunities since returning to Singapore. An example of this is in the way he developed his proficiency with the endoscopic ear surgery technique.

Recognising early that this modern minimally invasive surgical technique afforded numerous advantages to both patients and surgeons with very good clinical outcomes, he deliberately sought out hands-on surgical workshops to get trained and certified in the technique. In 2014, he introduced this form of surgery to patients in Singapore General Hospital, being one of the earliest few surgeons in Singapore to offer it.

Since then, he has personally performed over a hundred different ear surgeries endoscopically including the following:

Endoscopic Myringoplasties and Tympanoplasties
Endoscopic Tympanomastoidectomies
Endoscopic Ossiculoplasties
Endoscopic Laser Stapes Surgery including Stapedectomies
Endoscopic Facial Nerve Decompression surgery

With his increasing experience and proficiency, he has become a sought-after authority to lecture and teach this technique around the entire Southeast Asian region, being invited frequently as an instructor and lecturer at endoscopic ear surgery courses and workshops. He also personally organised and directed the Singapore General Hospital Endoscopic Ear Surgery Instructional Courses in 2017 and 2018 for participants from many countries.

Leadership Positions in ENT

Dr Barrie Tan was the President of the ASEAN Otorhinolaryngological (ENT) Head & Neck Federation from 2019-2021. He was also the President, Society of Otolaryngology (ENT) Head and Neck Surgery Singapore from 2017-2019.

These leadership roles allowed him to actively contribute within the local and the regional ENT Specialist fraternities. He believes in giving of his time to grow the impact of these professional organisations so as to advocate for better patient care and also to spearhead the adoption of modern surgical and technological advances in the care of ENT Conditions.

The following is a list of his other leadership positions in ENT and Professional Bodies:

Secretary-General, ASEAN Academy of Neuro-Oto-Audiology: 2015-present
Executive Board Member, ASIA-OCEANIA Association of Otolaryngology Societies: 2019-2027
Vice Chairman, Chapter of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology (ENT), College of Surgeons, Academy of Medicine Singapore: 2021-2025
Board member, Chapter of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology (ENT), College of Surgeons, Academy of Medicine Singapore: 2017-2021
Special advisor on Otolaryngology (ENT) to and Member, Civil Aviation Medical Board: 2014-2024
Visiting Consultant (Otolaryngology), Singapore Armed Forces: 2016-2021

Dr Barrie Tan also has a passion in building clinical teams. He founded and developed the new Ear, Nose and Throat Surgery Department in Sengkang General Hospital. He was the pro-tem Head, Department of Otolaryngology (ENT), Sengkang General Hospital from 2013-2018, whilst concurrently being the Head, Department of Otolaryngology (ENT), Singapore General Hospital.

He relished the opportunity to forge a new dynamic team of ENT Specialists, Audiologists and Nurses and meticulously worked towards providing excellent Ear, Nose, Throat, Head and Neck Surgery services to the community in the northeastern part of Singapore. He remains a Visiting Consultant to the Department of Otolaryngology (ENT), Sengkang General Hospital to this day.

Advancing the Field of ENT

Dr Barrie Tan is an avid teacher, spending much of his time teaching and nurturing the next generation of ENT surgeons.

From 2012-2014, he was the Program Director of the largest ENT Residency Program in Singapore, the SingHealth ENT Residency Training Program. He was subsequently appointed as a member of the National ENT Residency Advisory Committee which oversees the 3 ENT Residency programs in Singapore.

He is also remembered fondly amongst many Singaporean ENT residents for authoring and sharing his 4-volume set of revision notes geared towards helping residents pass their final ENT Exit examinations.

Dr Barrie Tan believes that education of professionals is a vital key to better medicine and has organised several major ENT conferences here in Singapore. He was the Organising President of the 18th ASEAN Otorhinolaryngological Federation Congress held in Singapore from 23-25 August 2019, which attracted over 1000 delegates and believed to be the largest ENT Conference organised in Singapore thus far.

Prior to this, he was also the Conference President of the 6th ASEAN Academy of Neuro-Oto-Audiology (AANOA) Congress held in Singapore in November 2016. He was also the Scientific Program Chairperson of the 7th Asia Pacific Symposium on Cochlear Implants and Related Sciences (APSCI) held in Singapore in December 2009 which also attracted 1000 delegates.

Collaborative Care

Dr Barrie Tan also believes in the power of collaboration. He co-founded the SingHealth-Duke NUS Head and Neck Centre in 2014, when it was the very earliest of its kind (SingHealth Duke-NUS Disease Centre) within SingHealth. From 2014-2018, Dr Barrie Tan served as the Deputy Head of the SingHealth-Duke NUS Head and Neck Centre.

In this capacity, he helped to coordinate the development of multidisciplinary Head and Neck Surgery capabilities and care of complex Head and Neck conditions in the various SingHealth hospitals and institutions. Dr Barrie Tan himself is proficient in the management and surgeries for thyroid nodules, neck lumps, lymph nodes and saliva gland tumours.

Volunteer Work

Dr Barrie Tan sets aside time to volunteer his skills both in Singapore and overseas. He volunteers at the Canossian School in Singapore which runs a special education program for children with hearing impairment and who wear hearing devices like hearing aids and cochlear implants. Dr Barrie Tan examines the ears, removes ear wax and takes care of the ear health issues of the pre-school children in this school and also gives talks to parents at the school.

Dr Barrie Tan has also travelled overseas frequently to perform medical mission work in Bangladesh, Cambodia and Vietnam. He believes in utilising his special ENT and ear surgery skillsets to help communities in need and therefore volunteers his time and effort pro bono on a regular basis.

In the past, Dr Barrie Tan performed ear surgeries like myringoplasties and mastoidectomies in rural communities. In recent years, Dr Barrie Tan has been performing cochlear implant surgeries for deaf Vietnamese children in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City under programs funded by the Hear-The-World Foundation.