Tan Chow Wei

Dr Tan Chow Wei is a senior lecturer at Clinical School Johor Bahru, Monash University Malaysia, specialising in general practice and family medicine. Dr Tan joined Jeffrey Cheah School of Medicine and Health Sciences’ clinical school in Johor Bahru as a fractional senior lecturer ever since it was established in early 2007. He obtained his basic medical degree from the medical faculty of University of Malaya in 1978. Upon obtaining full registration from the Malaysian Medical Council and the General Medical Council UK, he served in various rural and district hospitals before joining the Malaysian Armed Forces as a regimental medical officer and later as a medical registrar of an army hospital. He then left the government service in 1981 and joined a private general practice group in Johor Bahru, Johor. He started as an associate and eventually became a senior partner of Malaysia’s oldest existing medical group, which was established in 1922.

Dr Tan obtained the MCGP and FRACGP diplomas in 1987 and Diploma in Reproductive Medicine in 1990. He became a life member of Academy of Medicine Malaysia in 2005, and has been listed as a family medicine specialist in the National Specialist Register since 2007. Dr Tan has also obtained a graduate certificate in Teaching of Family Medicine awarded by the Academy of Family Physicians of Malaysia in 2009. Besides that, he also obtained a Certificate in Occupational Medicine (C.O.M. Malaysia) in 2010.

Dr Tan has long been active in teaching medical students from the local and overseas universities. He also actively trains practising GPs, preparing them to sit for Diploma in Family Medicine as well the Conjoint MAFP/FRACGP Examination. He has been a senior examiner for the Conjoint MAFP/FRACGP Examination since 1990.  In 2015, Dr Tan was officially appointed the Chief Examiner of the Conjoint MAFP/FRACGP Examination in Malaysia, overseeing over 50 examiners. His long-term teaching commitment with Monash University Malaysia as a senior lecturer has facilitated the collaboration of the Conjoint examination between Malaysian and Australian general practice. He received his long service award from Monash University in 2017.

Despite his hectic schedule, Dr Tan still finds time to organise and promote CME programs for GPs in Johor Bahru. Riding on his experience in the army, Dr Tan helped to establish the first private medical evacuation team in Malaysia and is currently a director and senior medical advisor to Asia Medevac Services Sdn. Bhd, which has successfully conducted more than 1000 land, sea, and air medical evacuations throughout the world since its establishment in 2010.  He is currently a member of the Board of Visitors of KPJ Johor Specialist Hospital, appointed by the Ministry of Health since 2011. He also serves as medical advisor to a number of NGOs, including Agape Counselling Centre of Malaysia, as part of his contribution to community service.

During the 2004 Asian Tsunami, Dr Tan assembled and led a 10-member self-funded disaster relief team to the Indonesian island of Nias to provide free medical and counselling services.

In recognition to his long and active contribution to medical academia, Dr Tan was elected a life fellow of the Academy of Family Physicians of Malaysia, life fellow of the Academy of Medicine of Malaysia, and a trustee for the Academies Building.