Bio
Dr Keong is a Malaysian-born, Cambridge-trained academic neurosurgeon with an interest in reversible brain injury. In addition to obtaining a Certificate for the Completion of Training (CCT) in the UK, she was awarded MPhil and MD degrees from the University of Cambridge. For her MD, she received the Raymond Horton-Smith prize (founded 1900) for best thesis of the academic year in Cambridge. Prior to relocating to Singapore, Dr Keong successfully applied for a Transitional Award Grant from the National Medical Research Council of Singapore to fund a longitudinal MR imaging study, SERENDIPITI, in which cross-correlations between normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) and secondary hydrocephalus (post-trauma and intracranial haemorrhage) are being sought. She has research interests in clinical interventions to modify disease outcomes. She was the Principal Investigator of the SILVER trial, a double-blind randomised controlled study, which produced Class I evidence for the reduction of infection using silver-impregnated external ventricular drains in acute hydrocephalus.
Her research work has been numerously awarded, including two subsequent NMRC CSA-Inv national grant awards for NEURON2 and NEURON3. She is currently actively recruiting patient cohorts to her studies on a novel classification scheme, based on advanced brain tissue signatures and Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI), that she has developed for acute-to-chronic brain injury subtypes of neurological disease. Her focus is characterizing the signature of reversible vs. irreversible brain injury and documenting the capacity of the brain microarchitecture for responsiveness to interventions. She is also involved in scoring strategies for risk stratification, early diagnosis and prognostication of mild-to-moderate Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), as well as translating cognitive neuroscience into learning micro-interventions. As part of her Nurturing High Performers Programme, she has also coached Patient Mentors to contribute towards efforts of promoting growth and learning in neurological diseases.
Education
Master (Arts - Medical Ethics & Law)
University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Doctor of Medicine
University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
Master of Philosophy (Med Sciences - Clinical Neuroscience)
University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery with Merit
University of Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom