Dr.
Dennis Hey is a Senior Consultant Spine Surgeon at the Department of
Orthopaedic Surgery, National University Hospital (NUH), and the Founding
Director of Motion-preserving
and Minimally-invasive
Spine
Unit
(MMSU), Singapore’s first themed spine unit at Alexandra Hospital. He also
holds the positions of Assistant Professor at the Yong Loo Lin School of
Medicine (YLLSoM),
and Research Director at the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, National
University of Singapore (NUS). His academic degrees and professional
accreditations are as follows:
1.Bachelor
of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degree (MBBS) (NUS)
2.Masters
of Medicine in Orthopaedics (MMed
Orth) (NUS)
3.Masters
of Clinical Investigation (MCI) (NUS)
4.Membership
of the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland (MRCSI)
5.Fellowship
of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in Orthopedics
(FRCSEd
Ortho)
Dr
Hey received comprehensive spine training from over 20 local spine surgeons in
Singapore during his early career. He then set aside dedicated time to travel
to more than 25 renowned spine centers
in China, Japan, South Korea, India, France, Germany, USA for extended training
and exposure. It is therefore unsurprising that Dr Hey has assimilated a
variety of different spine surgery techniques to deliver the best standard of
care to all his patients. In Dr Hey’s
opinion, “Patient-specific treatment necessitates proficiency in the full
spectrum of surgical skillsets. This comes with a wide clinical exposure and
continuous learning. A narrow and biased spine practice due to limited training
always lead to suboptimal outcomes.” Today, Dr Hey continues to learn fervently
from both his patients and spine colleagues. He spends at least a fortnight
each year visiting reputable surgeons abroad in order to continually upgrade
his surgical skills and stay abreast of the latest knowledge, as he believes
this is a key to success in the rapidly changing field that is spine surgery.
Dr Hey's
clinical practice has evolved over the years out of real-life lessons. Having
received specialized training in motion-preserving and minimally-invasive
“keyhole” approaches to the spine, he is a firm proponent of these as long as
they are beneficial to the patient requiring spine surgery. Having accumulating
a huge amount of experience of the years, Dr Hey routinely practices artificial
disc replacements for the cervical and lumbar spine, as well as endoscopic
spine surgery, benefitting patients whom previously would have been deemed
unsuitable candidates for such surgeries. According to Dr Hey “Life is motion.
When surgery is required, the ability to preserve spinal motion using the most
minimally-invasive approach is what would give excellent outcomes.” As a result
of this, Dr Hey established the first themed spine unit in Singapore which
focuses on delivering the best surgical care using motion-preserving and
keyhole solutions.
Limited
by current technology, neural decompression with or without instrumented fusion
continues to be the mainstay surgical treatment for most spine conditions. Dr Hey's
novel concept of “ligamentous-muscular counterbalancing” (LMC) is slowly
revolutionizing the way fusion surgery is being practiced worldwide. In
addition, his description of slump-sitting and fulcrum-extension dynamic X-ray
views to obtain the best information of the lumbar spine in motion has changed
our spine practice locally, and has been widely adopted by numerous spine centers
abroad. As a consequence of his own scientific breakthroughs, he has also
adopted a cutting-edge approach to spinal fusion surgery and considers the
spine as a mobile structure, thus performing individualized, spinal realignment
strategies. To do this, he makes reference to both the patient's standing and
sitting postures, rather than just the standing posture (which is the current
convention in spine surgery). This has helped him to reduce surgical
complication rates drastically. Dr Hey has received highly specialized training
in adult spinal deformity, and can be considered a leader in this field. He is
an expert in treating patients with severe spinal deformity requiring long
instrumented fusion with spinal realignment. Due to his passion for adult
spinal deformity, Dr Hey has spent countless hours unravelling the mysteries of
this sophisticated condition, and continues to do so to advance medical
knowledge.
Dr
Hey is an enthusiastic scientist and teacher. Apart from the above mentioned
breakthrough contributions to science, he has published numerous scientific
articles in high-tiered spine journals and has been invited to numerous
international conferences as a key opinion leader or guest speaker including
the Scoliosis Research Society (SRS) Annual Scientific Meeting, which is the
most prestigious international spine conference for spinal deformity. He views
these efforts and opportunities as forms of learning which reinforce his
clinical practice and patient care. The numerous teaching and mentoring awards
he has received over the years reflect his ever-glowing passion in teaching his
colleagues and the next generation. Finally, Dr Hey dedicates all his current
and future achievements as a surgeon, scientist, and teacher to Christ, his
supportive and loving wife, his 6 energetic kids, as well as his encouraging
mentors, friends and colleagues – for without whom the aforementioned would
never have been possible.