"Trauma Surgery often involves helping the most vulnerable in our community, at the time of their greatest need. Quick decision making, leading a large multidisciplinary team, and rapid effective surgery to save a life is challenging. When we can, we are able to return a patient at the verge of losing their life, back to their loved ones and go on to live a full life. This is a privileged reward for me and my team. My other twin passion of Vascular Surgery also serves a group of patients with many challenges and complex medical problems."

Dr Raj Menon is currently the Head of the Trauma Service in NUH, and the Centre Director for the National University Centre for Trauma.

He also serves as the Associate Chair, Medical Board for NUH and is the Director of Clinical Services for the Department of Surgery and the Surgical High Dependency Unit.

A Trauma and Vascular Surgeon, Dr Menon completed his undergraduate training at the National University of Singapore and embarked on specialist training in General Surgery with the Department of Surgery, NUH. He completed his fellowship exams with the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh and further trained in Trauma and Vascular Surgery.

He was awarded the Academic Medicine Development Award and completed a fellowship with the Royal London Hospital in Advanced Trauma and Vascular Surgery in 2018. He completed a Masters in Trauma Science with the Queen Mary University of London in 2018.

Leading Trauma and Surgical Care

Dr Raj's main clinical interests lie with the management of complex polytrauma patients and the use of novel endovascular techniques in their management. He is also interested in the development of national and regional trauma systems, trauma epidemiology and the psychosocial effects of trauma. He is also interested in the development of national and regional trauma systems, trauma epidemiology and the psychosocial effects of trauma. He is currently also the Clinical Director of the National Trauma Unit with the Ministry of Health and has been appointed as the President of the Asian Collaboration of Trauma, an international society of Asia's various trauma societies for 2025/2026.

Leading and educating the next generation.

His interest in mentoring and grooming the next generation of physician leaders has led to him taking on previous roles in both postgraduate education and was previously the Associate Program Director of the General Surgery Residency Program in NUHS. He now contributes as the core faculty for the program.

He also served as the Director of the NUHS Residency Leadership Development Program (RLDP) from 2020 to 2024, and now is an advisor for the program.  He is actively involved in undergraduate education, holding previous roles as a Phase Director for Undergraduate Surgery, and developing new curricula and programs in undergraduate surgical education. His current focus is developing extended-reality programs for trauma training.

1. Tallach, R., Schyma, B., Robinson, M., O'Neill, B., Edmonds, N., Bird, R., Sibley, M., Leitch, A., Cross, S., Green, L., Weaver, A., McLean, N., Cemlyn-Jones, R., Menon, R., Edwards, D., & Cole, E. (2022). Refining mass casualty plans with simulation-based iterative learning. British journal of anaesthesia, 128(2), e180–e189. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bja.2021.10.004
2. Ng, J. J., Gan, T. R. X., Niam, J. Y., Menon, R. K., Ho, P., Dharmaraj, R. B., Wong, J. C. L., & Choong, A. M. T. L. (2020). Experience from a Singapore tertiary hospital with restructuring of a vascular surgery practice in response to national and institutional policies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of vascular surgery, 72(4), 1166–1172. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvs.2020.05.026
3. Shabbir, A., Menon, R. K., Somani, J., So, J. B. Y., Ozman, M., Chiu, P. W. Y., & Lomanto, D. (2020). ELSA recommendations for minimally invasive surgery during a community spread pandemic: a centered approach in Asia from widespread to recovery phases. Surgical endoscopy, 34(8), 3292–3297. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00464-020-07618-0