Mixed reality technology in organ transplantation
Alfred Kow (SG)
Head & Senior Consultant · Hepatobiliary & Pancreatic Surgery and Liver Transplantation · National University of Singapore · Singapore
Associate Professor Alfred Kow is a practicing HPB and Liver Transplant surgeon at the National University Hospital Singapore. He is currently the Head of the Hepatobiliary & Pancreatic Surgery at the National University Hospital Singapore. His main area of interest is liver transplantation and minimally invasive HPB surgery. He has pioneered many complex HPB surgeries in Singapore using MIS technique including major laparoscopic hepatectomies, laparoscopic pancreaticoduodenectomy (Whipples’), full laparoscopic ALPPS procedure and laparoscopic liver donor hepatectomy for liver transplantation. He was also the Clinical Director (2017 to 2023) of the MILES program at NUHS (Management and Innovation for Longevity in Elderly Surgical patients), focusing on improving the peri-operative care and outcomes of elderly patients needing surgery in NUHS. In addition, he has been appointed the Vice Chairman of Medical Board (Education) for the National University Hospital Singapore in November 2023. He is also a pioneer in the world in developing mixed reality technology with holographic-guided HPB surgery, including holographic-guided laparoscopic liver resection, holographic-guided donor hepatectomy and holographic-guided laparoscopic Whipples operation.
HHe has been actively involved in activities at the International Liver Transplant Society (ILTS) and is the President Elect of the ILTS in 2026-2027. He was a member of the ILTS Education and Scholarship Committee in 2021 to 2024 and co-led the Regional Expansion Advanced Learning project for Southeast Asia and South Asia for the ILTS, focusing on growing the outreach of LT in the regions through education. He was also the local congress chair for the ILTS Annual Congress 2025 held in Singapore. He has received the ILTS REAL award in 2023 for his efforts to grow the knowledge and skills of LT in the Southeast Asian and South Asian regions through education. On top of that, he is the study group lead for MIS HPB Surgery and steering committee for study groups at the International Society for Liver Surgeons (ISLS). He has also been appointed as the Members-at-Large at the ISLS. He was also the previous Education Committee Chair of the iLDLT Group.
In addition to his clinical work, Associate Prof Alfred Kow spends a lot of his time planning medical school curriculum for the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine in National University of Singapore as the Assistant Dean of Education at the Deanery. He has also received many teaching awards for teaching excellence from the hospital, medical school as well as at the university level (Including the Outstanding Educator Award at the NUS University Awards in 2021 & Outstanding Mentor Award at NUHS Tribute Night 2023). He is also actively involved in surgical training for postgraduate surgical program at the hospital as well as at the Ministry of Health of Singapore. He is also actively involved in developing advanced technology in education using VR, MR and AI with machine learning models in medical training.
Dr Kow has keen interest in research activities involving development of surgical techniques in HPB surgery, liver transplantation and outcomes of surgical treatment for HPB malignancies. Furthermore, he is also actively developing research to help improve surgical education and training for both undergraduate and postgraduate setting. Many of his research work on education aim to understand the art and science behind training the junior doctors to be excellent surgeons for the future. He has published more than 280 peer-reviewed papers and conference articles as well as a few book chapters in the areas of Hepatobiliary surgery and gastroenterology.