Background

Dr. Wu Pang Hung is the Director and Chief Of Minimally Invasive and Endoscopic Spine Surgery Division and Consultant Orthopaedic surgeon of Achieve Spine and Orthopaedic Centre (ASOC).  Dr. Wu is an orthopaedic and spine surgeon.

He is one of the earliest Singaporean orthopaedic surgeon with Ministry Of Health Scholarship to complete a full 18 months fellowship in both open complex spinal surgery, pediatric and adult spinal deformity and spinal tumor fellowship in North America as well as endoscopic spine surgery (one of the least invasive form of spinal decompression and fusion surgery) in South Korea.

His clinical and academic interest includes treatment of complex cervical, thoracic and lumbar spinal problems through minimally invasive spinal approaches and motion preservation surgeries. His orthopaedic surgical mottos are “small is beautiful, less is more, tissue and motion conservation is priority.”

Education

Dr. Wu completed his Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery, and Singapore at the National University of Singapore (NUS) as one of the top 10 graduates in Dean’s list in 2005/2006. He received the prestigious Ministry Of Health Singapore Scholarship in 2010 for his basic and advanced surgical training in Orthopaedic Surgery during his residency.

He obtained Graduate Diploma Of Family Medicine, Membership in Royal College Of Surgeons (Ireland) , Master Of Medicine ( Orthopaedic Surgery) and completed his advanced Orthopaedic Surgical Training by obtaining Fellowship in Royal College Of Surgeons ( Edinburgh) in the process.

Fellowships

Dr. Wu has strong interest in various spinal and orthopaedic surgical techniques. Dr. Wu obtained several fellowship awards from different organizations to fulfill his postdoctoral training requirements in Asia, Europe and North America. He received ASEAN Orthopaedic Junior Travelling Fellowship in 2014 to visit various Orthopaedic and Spine centres in ASEAN regions to understand the regional orthopaedic disease patterns and treatment strategies. In 2017, he received the prestigious AO trauma fellowship to practice in one of the top German Tertiary Trauma Centre, Unfallklinik Ludwigshafen Trauma Centre, University of Heidelberg, Germany which he learnt important spine and orthopaedic trauma fixation techniques. In the same year, he visited Wellington Hospital, New Zealand and practiced lumbar lateral access minimally invasive Spinal Surgery.

Dr. Wu received the prestigious Full Year AO Spine North America Fellowship in one of the top accredited AO spine units in North America, Toronto Western Hospital (TWH), University of Toronto. During the fellowship training in Canada, he practiced in Toronto Western Hospital, The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and Sunnybrook Hospital (SBK) as part of the University of Toronto Citywide Fellow, being exposed to complex pediatric and adult spinal deformity, complex spinal trauma, spinal tumor and tubular microscopic minimally invasive surgery.

After completion of several fellowships ranging from open to microscopic tubular surgeries, Dr. Wu further his training in minimally invasive spine surgery by obtaining the prestigious Ministry of Health (MOH) Scholarship award in 2018 and became one of the earliest Singaporean international fellow at Nanoori Gangnam Hospital, Seoul, South Korea, a world renowned centre for uniportal and biportal endoscopic spine surgery, the least invasive form of spinal surgery.  In 2022, he obtained the distinguished AO Asia Pacific spine fellowship to practice in Okayama Rosai Hospital, Japan, world renowned spinal navigation centre. In 2023, he visited South Korea Wooridul and St Peter’s Hospital to enhance his training in cervical and lumbar disc replacement surgeries.  Overall he spent 2 years overseas in several different countries to understand the full spectrum of spine and orthopaedic surgery practice.

Clinical Work Experience And Ambulatory Spinal Surgery

Before entering private practice, Dr. Wu was an Orthopaedic Consultant, Director of Spinal Fellowship Program and Director of Orthopaedic Research in the Department Of Orthopaedic Surgery, Juronghealth Campus, National University Health System. Dr. Wu is also a Visiting Consultant to Orthopaedic Departments in National University Hospital, National University Health System He is also a Visiting Consultant of Singhealth., Sengkang General Hospital, Department Of Orthopaedic Surgery.

Dr. Wu is known internationally as one of the few spinal surgeons in the world who mastered the surgical skillset in both Uniportal and Biportal Spinal Endoscopy to treat complex cervical, thoracic and lumbar spinal condition. He is a strong proponent for ambulatory spine surgery, and education for spinal surgeons.

Prior to entering private practice, Dr. Wu sets up LEADS (Local Endoscopic Awake Discectomy Surgery) protocol and ambulatory Uniportal and Biportal Endsocopic Spine Surgery for lumbar decompression and discectomy in Ng Teng Fong General Hospital. Together with his team of endoscopic spine surgeons in his government practice, they published their clinical results in established spinal and medical journals. He is one of the first Singaporean surgeon to lead his team to publish their results in European Spine Journal on “Ambulatory uniportal versus biportal endoscopic decompression for lumbar spinal stenosis” with an average stay for patients to be less than 24 hours in his cohort of patients who underwent spine surgery for spinal stenosis.

Other than his own government hospital, Dr. Wu was privileged to be able to provide the expertise and advice to start up a number of endoscopic spinal units in overseas hospitals before going to private practice. Dr. Wu was featured several times in English, Chinese and Tamil TV, Newspapers and Radio for his work in development of endoscopic spine surgery in Singapore for the past years. Due to his broad surgical expertise, he had been appointed consulting and education roles in several established pharmaceutical, spinal endoscopic and open spinal surgical implant companies.

He was awarded for providing excellent service to his patients during his time in National University Health System when he won Patient Service Quality Service Ambassador Award in 2018 and Service Ambassador Gold Award in 2022.

Undergraduate And Postgraduate Mentorship To Medical Students And Spinal Surgeons

Dr. Wu is an enthusiastic medical mentor and also appointed as Adjunct Assistant Professor, National University Of Singapore. He won Orthopaedic Teaching Excellence Award, National University Of Singapore in academic years from 2015 to 2017 for undergraduate education.

Dr. Wu was one of the earliest Spine Surgery Fellowship Director of National University Health System, Jurong Health Campus , Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. He had since mentored a number of local and international Orthopaedic and Neurosurgical spine surgeons as observers and fellows from Singapore, Australia, Vietnam, Thailand, China, India etc.

Academic Achievement in Minimally Invasive Endoscopic Spine Surgery

Dr Wu is a well known teacher in different countries in both uniportal and biportal endoscopic spine surgery where he gives lecture , Cadaveric workshop and live surgeries. Due to his teaching commitment he was conferred Visiting Professor in Henan Provincial Hospital. His team is one of the earliest to describe in the same year. He is also one of the first to describe some of the most updated endoscopic surgical treatments for cervical ,thoracic and lumbar conditions in both uniportal and biportal spinal endoscopy. Together with his South Korean and Singaporean team, he pioneered several endoscopic techniques in cervical spinal tumor resection, posterolateral endoscopic lumbar spinal fusion, treatment of complex lumbar spinal conditions such as Lumbar Bertoloti syndrome and Cauda Equina Syndrome. He is also a pioneer in describing the endoscopic surgical treatment of discogenic pain, he authored several pain related articles and he is an active reviewer of pain related journals.

 He published extensively in spinal and medical journals, some of the papers won the best paper awards in Journal Of Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery Techniques and being cover page journal of Journal Surgical Techniques Development. Dr. Wu was appointed Guest editorial board member in North American Spine Society (NASS)- Neurospine Journal special issue on Endoscopic Spine Surgery , Journal Of Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery and World Neurosurgery Journal Special Issue on Endoscopic Spine Surgery in 2019-2021. He was appointed the Editor of Medicina Journal Endoscopic Spine Special Edition in 2022 and Lead Editor for JMISST special issue of minimally invasive approach to the cervical-thoracic spine in 2023. Dr. Wu is a reviewer for a number of major scientific journals in spine, neurosurgery, pain management and orthopaedic surgery. He was described by Lin et al in Frontier Surgery Journal September 2022 edition, “Current Status and research hotspots in the field of full endoscopic spine surgery: A bibliometric analysis” as one of the world most productive authors in endoscopic spine surgery.

Dr. Wu also authored several important orthopaedic, spinal textbooks and surgical atlas, including the prestigious AO spinal endoscopy online textbook which is a reference for most spine surgeons worldwide.  Dr. Wu also authored a spine chapter in a reference Neurosurgical Textbook, Youmann and Winn for neurosurgical residency and postsurgical training.

Dr. Wu is a distinguished international speaker in a number of conferences around the world. He won several Best Oral Papers in local and overseas conferences for his work in spine surgery. He is an invited faculty and speaker in various topics from traumatic spine injuries, tumor surgeries, minimally invasive and endoscopic spine surgeries and complex spinal surgeries in numerous local and overseas conferences.

Dr. Wu had been chairman or table instructor for various cadaveric workshops for open and endoscopic spine surgeries in various hands-on workshops to train spinal surgeons in different countries. Dr. Wu chaired the inaugural Singapore Spine Society Endoscopic Focus Group to discuss various endoscopic techniques in Annual Scientific Meeting in 2023.

Professional Societies

Dr. Wu is an active member of AO spine society, permanent member and subcommittee board member of Asia Pacific Spine Society and a member of ASEAN Minimally Invasive Society and International Society Of Spinal Unilateral Biportal Endoscopy. He is also invited as faculties of World Unilateral Biportal Endoscopic Society with headquarters in South Korea, World Congress On Spine Endoscopy with headquarters in India.  Dr. Wu is a founding member of a number of joint international committee between Singapore and overseas countries for spinal endoscopic education, such as Merlion-Garuda (MEGA) Unilateral Biporal Endoscopy Education Committee which involved Singaporean and Indonesian endoscopic surgeons and International Biportal Research Educational Committee (IBREC) in order to train the next generation of spine surgeons.