Paul Ong

Dr Paul Ong is a cardiologist at Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital. He subspecialises in interventional cardiology. He was one of the earliest to adopt trans-radial approach in coronary angioplasty when the technique was still in its infancy. He also played a pivotal role in introducing and adopting modern cardiology technologies in the Asia-Pacific. This included renal denervation for hypertension, intravascular lithotripsy for treating calcified blood vessels, and the Impella heart pump to protect the very sick patients during high-risk angioplasty. He is also the earliest cardiologist to perform robotic-assisted angioplasty in Southeast Asia. Dr Ong graduated with honours from the University of Cambridge Medical School, and pursued his cardiology specialist training in heart centres at Hammersmith, Royal Brompton, and Harefield Hospitals. He was appointed NHS cardiology consultant and Cathlab director at the Lister Hospital and the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Trust in 2006. He was subsequently elected as Fellow of Royal College of Physicians and Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology in 2008. After spending 23 years studying and working in England, he relocated to Singapore in 2009, and headed the interventional cardiology service at Tan Tock Seng Hospital. Over the next 10 years, Dr Ong and his team brought about many practice changes in Tan Tock Seng Hospital. His clinical experience in the UK and Asia as a senior doctor gave him a global prospective of managing heart disease while remaining sensitive to the nuances of local practice. In the last decade, he has made over a hundred trips to lecture and proctor angioplasty practice in Asia, and has trained many cardiology fellows in the UK and throughout Southeast Asia. He was instrumental in securing funding to train and develop the heart attack angioplasty programme in Myanmar. Dr Ong is the founding chairman of both the Asia Primary Angioplasty Congress (APAC) and the Asia Physiology and Coronary Imaging Course (APACi) to promote a high standard of cardiac care in Asia. He is one of the few interventional cardiologists from Singapore to initiate his own international multi-centre clinical trials. He was also the principal investigator of over 20 large-scale randomised clinical trials. He has supervised the research work of fellow cardiologists over the years and got their results presented in international scientific conferences. He has over 60 high-impact scientific publications in renowned medical journals. In recognition of his reputation in the field of interventional cardiology, he has been invited to sit in organising committee of scientific meetings and the advisory boards. In his spare time, Dr Ong enjoys travelling, photography and jogging. He is happily married to a paediatric specialist and has two young adult sons.