Dr. Sharon Koh Zhiling

Biography

Dr. Sharon Koh is a colorectal surgeon who subspecializes in colorectal surgery, minimally invasive surgery and advanced endoscopy.

Prior to private practice, Dr. Koh was the former Director of Endoscopy at Alexandra Hospital where she participated in the planning and running of the endoscopy centre from 2018 to 2020. She is currently a senior clinical lecturer at the National University of Singapore (NUS)’s Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine.

Dr. Koh graduated from NUS with a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) and a Master of Medicine in Surgery. She completed her advanced surgical training in both National University Hospital and Singapore General Hospital and obtained her fellowship diploma from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, U.K. in 2013. She also obtained her accreditation as a specialist in General Surgery in 2014.

Dr. Koh completed her 18-month fellowship of advanced colorectal surgery with a special focus on inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) under the mentorship of Professor Phillip R. Fleshner alongside a team of 10 colorectal surgeons at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, U.S. after being awarded the Academic Medicine Development Award (AMDA) by the National University Hospital of Singapore.

Apart from clinical work, Dr. Koh has also published several peer-reviewed papers in the Inflammatory Bowel Diseases and Annals of Surgery journals and presented her research in several international conferences. She was also awarded the International Organization of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IOIBD) research grant in 2014.

Dr Koh's other interests include endoscopic management of both benign and malignant lesions in the gastrointestinal tract for which she has published papers and a book chapter on. She spent time under the proctorship of Professor Hironori Yamamoto both locally and in Jichi, Japan during her years of training in NUH to develop her skills in both diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopy.

She is currently a member of the Society of Colorectal Surgeons in Singapore and an international member of the European Society of Coloproctology and have participated in several GlobalSurg Collaborative cohort studies from 2018 to 2020.

Dr. Koh believes in extending medical care beyond that of the hospital grounds. She was part of the SOUL (Surgical Outreach for Underprivileged) committee in 2011 to 2012 and was part of the F1 Grand Prix medical support team from 2008 to 2011. Having been involved in the Ministry of Health’s Value Driven Care (VDC) project for hemorrhoidectomy, she believes that both holistic and quality care can be achieved when she place patients’ wellbeing in the heart of her service.

Dr Koh's specialty interests are colorectal surgery, diagnostic and therapeurticendoscopy, inflammatory bowel disease and MIS surgery.