Daniel Chan’s multifaceted career

Dr Daniel Chan is a research fellow at the University of Western Sydney and a recipient of the Sir Roy McCaughey Research Scholarship. The scholarship is awarded to surgeons and Trainees undertaking research as part of a PhD and is valued at $66,000. Daniel received the award for two consecutive years, in 2020 and 2021. “I feel very privileged to have received the award. It has enabled me to complete most of the work for my PhD,” he says. Daniel describes his pathway into medicine as “a linear progression”. He started his undergraduate degree at the University of New South Wales and progressed directly as a surgical Trainee in general surgery, attaining his Fellowship at 30 years of age. “My family background is in the legal profession. From a young age I was dragged to the UNSW Law Library and photocopied case law, and that world kind of made sense to me. Medicine didn't make sense and that’s what made it interesting,” he says. During 2019–2020 Daniel travelled to Hong Kong for post-fellowship Upper GI training. “That year at a high-volume centre in the Prince of Wales Hospital in Hong Kong was fantastic. The course was made more interesting by protests and the start of the COVID-19 pandemic,” he says. As a part of his scholarship Daniel looked at the objective assessment and management of the oesophageal hiatus and associated pathology. He was able to coordinate international collaboration between St George Hospital in Sydney, the Prince Wales Hospital in Hong Kong, and the Western Sydney University in several research projects and publications. “Hiatal hernia surgery is an area where we haven’t managed to get results like in other hernia surgery. There’s still a significant recurrence rate after repairs. Perhaps the controversies in management are related to a lack of objective preoperative assessment,” Daniel says. “We looked at hiatal hernia diagnosis within a Hong Kong population using preoperative endoscopy, and then intraoperative findings. Preoperative high-resolution manometry was also compared to intraoperative findings in an Australian revisional bariatric surgery population. “Techniques like barium swallow are over a century old and quite subjective. High resolution manometry is now being used to interrogate the oesophageal hiatus, but it only provides a vertical assessment and doesn't reflect the three-dimensional nature of the hiatus. Multi-planar measurements with CT and perhaps MRI may have a growing role.” Daniel is also a major in the Australian Army Reserves. He has served on an operational deployment to the Solomon Islands, embarked on HMAS Adelaide, and served domestically in the New South Wales bushfires from 2019–20.

In late 2021 he was deployed to Baghdad, Iraq for four months where he worked as a general surgeon with a highly specialised tri-service team of Australian Defence Force medical professionals. Alongside his US counterparts in the 11th Field Hospital, their team cared for US, Australian and coalition forces, and host nation soldiers.

“I enjoyed providing surgical services to Australians and others aboard. It’s another opportunity to practice our values of Service, Compassion and Collaboration—albeit in a more austere environment,” Daniel says.

Daniel and his wife have two young daughters with whom he enjoys spending time. He also volunteers with St. John Ambulance, Australia (NSW) and enjoys spending time on his fruit and vegetable garden.