A medical practitioner and public health specialist, with a PhD in Epidemiology, Dr Chen has worked in the field of infectious disease epidemiology for more than 20 years, with leadership experience in administrative roles and also research programmes, with special focus on surveillance and interventions to prevent Communicable Diseases. Dr Chen joined the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, in October 2024, while concurrently holding an appointment in the Ministry of Health where he has projects using advanced methods to derive insights into infectious disease epidemiology. He also leads a philanthropically funded population-based research program into infectious disease incidence and behaviors relevant to infectious diseases control. His current portfolio of responsibilities includes supervision of two teams, most of whom have post-graduate qualifications. The first team contributes to conduct and analysis of hospital-based surveillance, while the second conducts research on behaviors and interventions relevant to prevention of communicable diseases.

Dr Chen sub-specializes in infectious disease epidemiology, with deep technical expertise in various methods ranging from epidemiological study design, cost effectiveness analysis, transmission dynamics models, and statistical methods. He also has extensive experience collaborating with other experts and supervising staff in applying skills to infectious diseases from a broad suite of disciplines, ranging from computational methods such as use of Natural Language Processing tools, to behavioral studies and qualitative research methods. He has ample experience as a manager and leader, having led both operational as well as research teams.

Highlights of his career include serving in the original team that investigated the outbreak of SARS in Tan Tock Seng Hospital in Singapore in 2003, leading multiple research studies into the influenza A(H1N1) pandemic of 2009, more recent work from 2020 to 2023 in COVID-19 which spanned epidemiological and behavioral studies as well as modeling, and longstanding involvement in HIV surveillance and epidemiology. Dr Chen is also recognized as a dedicated and effective mentor who has trained and developed multiple Master’s and PhD students, as well as provided on-job training to and developed non-medical and medical staff at various levels.

Within infectious disease epidemiology, the focus of most of Dr Chen’s work centres around infectious disease surveillance. This has leveraged on his PhD in mathematical modelling, which provides him unique insights into the interpretation of and use of surveillance data. Much of this work is also published as research articles, where Dr Chen is cited as an author in more than 160 scientific papers, with a H-index in excess of 50. Other than the focus on infectious diseases, a significant proportion of the research takes place in primary care settings, with overlap into health services research.