Professor Lawrence Khek-Yu Ho graduated with first-class honours from the University of Sydney, and undertook his training in therapeutic gastrointestinal endoscopy and endoscopic ultrasound at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, USA. Besides being an accomplished endoscopist who has been invited to perform live case demonstrations in numerous international endoscopy workshops, he is an international key opinion leader in endoscopy. He was conferred the honorary International Life Membership of the Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy of India, and made Fellow of Japan Gastroenterological Endoscopy Society, to recognize his significant contributions to the field of gastrointestinal endoscopy. He is an effective educator, winning the Faculty Teaching Excellence Awards, National University of Singapore, in 2000 and 2003 respectively. He chairs the Asian Endoscopic Ultrasound Group, which is a well-established platform for leading EUS experts to promote endoscopic ultrasound training.
Experienced in spearheading collaboration between researchers in Asia, he co-chairs the Gut & Obesity in Asia (“Go Asia”) Workgroup, which aims to study the relationship between obesity and gastrointestinal and liver conditions in Asia. He also co-chairs and the USA NIH-NCS initiated Asian Barrett’s Consortium, bringing together Asian experts in gastroesophageal reflux disease to conduct research in Barrett’s esophagus. His regional standing as an academic leader is evident in the number of named lectures he has delivered in the region: as an orator at the Francisco Roman Memorial Lecture (Philippine Society of Gastroenterology and Philippine Society of Digestive Endoscopy, twice in 2003 & 2013 respectively), Nihal Marcus Memorial Oration (Sri Lanka Gastroenterological Association, 2012), and the Macau Society of Digestive Endoscopy Lecture (2013). In 2010, he was conferred the Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Foundation Emerging Leadership lecturer at Asia Pacific Digestive Week. His editorial experiences include serving as Associate Editors of Techniques and Innovations in Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (officially affiliated with the American Gastroenterological Association), Digestive Diseases, Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Open, and Digestive Endoscopy.
A proven clinician innovator and experienced entrepreneur, he co-invented the ground-breaking technology of the Master and Slave Transluminal Endoscopic Robot (MASTER), which has since been spun-off into the start-up, Endomaster. Endomaster became the 2017 Asia’s Best funded MedTech start-up. He also founded two other start-up companies, Endofotonics, a molecular AI based realtime diagnostic system, and Endopil, an ingestible weight loss balloon capsule. He received the Singapore President’s Technology Award in 2012, the highest honour bestowed on exceptional research scientists and engineers in Singapore for their excellent achievements in science and technology. He has published more than 260 peer-reviewed papers (H index Google Scholar, 59), more than 15 book chapters, co-edited 2 books, and held 10 granted patents in translational products.
He is the immediate past Vice Dean, School of Medicine, National University of Singapore. He is also past Head, Department of Medicine, National University of Singapore. He was President of Gastroenterological Society of Singapore in 2005. In recognition of his outstanding contributions to the medical profession, he was awarded the prestigious Distinguished Senior Clinician award. He was conferred the Public Administration Medal (Bronze) in 2017. He is currently the Director for the Centre for Innovation in Healthcare and the Director of NUH Referral Laboratory.
