Practitioner Profile

The clinic offers a comprehensive range of services covering both the diagnosis and management of gut and liver conditions.
Examples of diseases diagnosed and treated (but are not limited to):
- Helicobacter pylori gastritis
- Inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn’s disease, Ulcerative colitis)
- Irritable bowel syndrome
- Cancer screening (stomach, colon)
- Anemia
- Lactose intolerance / Malabsorption
- Evaluation of abnormal tumour markers
- Evaluation of abnormal liver function test
- Hepatitis (including Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C,Hepatitis E)
- Fatty liver disease
- Liver cirrhosis

Dr Ling obtained his medical degree from the National University of Singapore in 1993. After completing basic specialist training in Internal Medicine, he trained in Gastroenterology at the Singapore General Hospital from 1997 – 2000. He was then awarded a fellowship by the Ministry of Health in 2001 to train in the management of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases in the University of Oxford under Professor Derek Jewell and Dr Simon Travis. He was subsequently awarded a National Medical Research Council Research Fellowship and remained in Oxford for another 3 years from 2002 – 2005 where he studied for a Phd in cancer immunology. Dr Ling returned to the Singapore General Hospital as a consultant in the Department of Gastroenterology & Hepatology in 2005 and was made the Head of the department in 2012.
His main areas of clinical interest are in Helicobacter pylori associated gastritis and the inflammatory bowel diseases. Working with the Pathology department in SGH, he helped to introduce Helicobacter pylori stool test and Helicobacter pylori culture into routine clinical service. He is an active member of the Gastric Cancer Consortium and he has been involved in research on the development and progression of pre-cancerous lesions in the Helicobacter pylori infected stomach.
In IBD, he validated the use of stool calprotectin as a measure of gut inflammation in our local patients and helped the Pathology department bring this test into service. Recognising the need for gastroenterologists to determine the reasons why IBD patients do not respond to treatment, Dr Ling has worked over the last 3 years to introduce drug monitoring for azathioprine, infliximab and adalimumab therapy. Leading a team of doctors from SGH, NUH, TTSH, CGH, KTPH and KKWCH, and in collaboration with the Singhealth Pharmacology Core Facility, Dr Ling was awarded a grant by MOH to set up tests for azathioprine drug monitoring. Separately, Dr Ling’s laboratory in SGH measured levels of infliximab and adalimumab in patients on these therapies to help determine the best course of action when patients lose response to these medicines.
In addition to running a busy clinical practice, Dr Ling is active in research and education and is an Adjunct Associate Professor with the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School. His research interest is in the immunology of gastric and colorectal cancers, in particular, the role which chronic inflammation plays in their pathogenesis and treatment. He was awarded the Singhealth Clinician Scientist Award in 2008, and NMRC Clinician Scientist Awards in 2009 and in 2012.
Dr Ling has been actively engaged in the teaching and training of the next generation of doctors and scientists. In addition to being a tutor in Immunology and Internal Medicine for students from the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, he lectures the Duke-NUS Medical School students on the basic science of the gastrointestinal tract, and is faculty in the Singhealth Gastroenterology Senior Residency Program. He has supervised an Immunology PHD student in NUS, and has mentored Biological Science students from the NUS, NTU and Ngee Ann Polytechnic in their Final Year Research Projects.

National Medical Research Council Research Fellowship