Dr Joachim Yau graduated from the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, NUS, in 2010, under the SAF Local Medicine Scholarship. He obtained his MRCS (Surgery, Edinburgh) in 2012, MMED (Surgery, Singapore) in 2018 and FRCS (General Surgery, Edinburgh) in 2021.

Dr Yau is a General Surgery Consultant in the Department of Surgery at Woodlands Health, with an interest in gastrointestinal and colorectal conditions.

Dr Yau served as a Medical Officer in the Singapore Armed Forces and was instrumental in several key transformation projects, including designing and developing capabilities for the Army’s motorized infantry medical platforms, redesigning of the SAF’s directory of vocations and PES classifications, and setting up of the fifth school at SAF’s Basic Military Training Centre (BMTC). As project team lead, Dr Yau led a multi-disciplinary team in the operationalising of SAF’s first Regional Health Hub at Kranji Camp in 2023, and laying the foundation for SAF’s longer-term plans to transform SAF’s primary and emergency healthcare delivery.

Dr Yau was deployed to the Ministry of Manpower (in 2020) and the Ministry of Health (2021 to 2022) as part of the Task Forces to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. As Head of Telemedicine Cell, Dr Yau was instrumental in the setting up and provision of Telemedicine services in support of the Home Recovery Programme. For his contributions, he was awarded the national Commendation Medal (COVID-19) in 2023.

Dr Yau also holds a concurrent appointment of Deputy Director at the Ministry of Health’s Health Regulations Group, where he helps to coordinate health regulations and oversees the ongoing transformation review of Singapore’s healthcare regulatory ecosystem.

Dr Yau is a strong advocate for research, innovation and is also a passionate teacher to both medical students and junior doctors. For his contributions, he was awarded the NHG Outstanding Teaching Award for Junior Doctors in 2011 and NUS Outstanding Junior Doctor Teaching Award in 2018.

Dr Yau speaks English and Mandarin.