Practitioner Profile

Senior Consultant Ophthalmologist

Director of Glaucoma Services

Dr Desmond Quek is a Senior Consultant eye surgeon and Director of Glaucoma Services at Eagle Eye Centre. He specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of glaucoma, cataracts, refractive errors (myopia, astigmatism, presbyopia), as well as general ophthalmological conditions such as diabetic eye disease, age related macular degeneration, and dry eyes.

Dr Quek graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at the National University of Singapore (NUS) in 2001, where he was awarded the NUS Undergraduate Scholarship and received the Dean’s List Award for academic excellence. He went on to complete his residency in Ophthalmology at the Singapore National Eye Centre (SNEC) under the Ministry of Health Postgraduate Scholarship, and was appointed as a member (2008) and fellow (2011) of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, and a fellow of the Academy of Medicine of Singapore (2011). He then underwent sub-specialty fellowship training in glaucoma at SNEC, before pursuing an executive Masters of Business Administration at INSEAD in 2013.

Prior to joining Eagle Eye Centre, Dr Quek held numerous leadership positions at SNEC including Chief Resident, Chief Registrar, and was Director of Medical Informatics, Chair of IT Committee and Director of Strategy and Resource Management. He was also actively involved in research as Principal Investigator in multiple research trials, including the association of obstructive sleep apnoea with glaucoma, the Asia tube-vs-trabeculectomy surgical trial, and the delivery of sustained-release eye pressure lowering medication via a microstent injection. He is the first-author of numerous scientific journal articles, and has given multiple research presentations at international eye conferences.

His current clinical interests are mainly in glaucoma, cataract and refractive surgery. These include laser treatment for eye pressure control, minimally invasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS), trabeculectomy and tube shunt surgeries, phacoemulsification and femtosecond laser cataract surgery, implantation of multifocal and toric lenses for the correction of myopia, presbyopia and astigmatism, and LASIK.

Dr Quek believes in good work-life balance. Despite his hectic schedule he finds time to swim and gym regularly and indulges selectively in hawker food. Fluent in English, Mandarin and Teochew, he is trying to learn conversational Japanese.