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Making Deliveries "Pain-less"

Dr Sng Ban Leong, Senior Consultant, Dept of Women's Anaesthesiology, KKH

Sng Ban Leong.PNG

A majority of pregnant women may require anaesthetic care at some point of their journey, be it epidural analgesia for labour or for Caesarean deliveries. At the Department of Women’s Anaesthesia, Dr Sng and his colleagues work together for better patient care, for example, through research and innovations to minimise pain for women in labour and delivery.

One of his proudest achievements was the development of a labour epidural analgesia system, known as EPIVA, in partnership with a medical device start-up company. Through a proprietary algorithm developed by KKH, the device features an interactive technology that can administer the optimal amount of analgesia tailored to the patient’s needs, to create a more comfortable birthing experience for the mother while safeguarding maternal and foetal well-being. 25 units of the EPIVA pump are currently in routine use at KKH. More than 12,000 women in labour have benefitted from EPIVA so far.

Dr Sng is also the Academic Vice-Chair (Research) in the Anaesthesiology and Perioperative Sciences Academic Clinical Programme and had been awarded the National Medical Research Council Transition Award and Clinician Scientist Award for Research in 2013 and 2017 respectively.

“What keeps me going is knowing that in our work, whether through direct patient care, in education or research, we are contributing to better patient care now and in the future,” he said.