Team
Mr Stephen Tham
Mr Tham graduated medicine at Monash University in 1985 and went on to specialise in orthopaedic surgery. He was accepted for a Microsurgery Fellowship at the Bernard O’Brien Institute of Microsurgery at St Vincent’s Public Hospital Melbourne in 1994 and followed this with a Fellowship in Hand Surgery at Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane, Australia in 1995. Mr Tham was accepted for a further Hand Fellowship at Mount Sinai Medical Centre and New York University Medical Centre in the USA in 1996 after which he returned to Melbourne to commence practice as a Specialist Hand Surgeon. He was awarded the Australian Hand Surgery Society Travelling Fellowship in 2008.
Mr Tham now works in the Hand Surgery Unit at St Vincent’s Public Hospital Melbourne and as a Senior Hand Surgery Consultant at Dandenong Hospital He is a current member of the Australian Hand Surgery Society and is a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.
A/Prof David McCombe
A/Prof David McCombe graduated medicine from the University of Melbourne in 1990 and went on to specialize in plastic surgery. In 2000 he commenced a Hand Fellowship with the Victorian Hand Surgery Associates. He followed this with a Microsurgery Fellowship with the Bernard O’Brien Institute of Microsurgery at St Vincent’s Hospital from 2000 – 2001 and from 2002 – 2003 completed further training with a Fellowship in Microsurgery and Children’s Hand Surgery at St James University Hospital, in Leeds, UK. A/Prof McCombe then returned to Melbourne in 2003 to commence private practice, maintaining a special interest in adult and children’s hand surgery, peripheral nerve and brachial plexus surgery and reconstructive microsurgery. He was awarded the Australian Hand Surgery Society Travelling Fellowship in 2012. Today, A/Prof McCombe works as a Consultant Surgeon in the Hand, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Unit at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne, as a Consultant Surgeon in the Plastic Surgery Unit at the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne and a visiting Hand Surgeon at St Vincent’s Private Hospital in Kew, Fitzroy and East Melbourne. He is a member of the Australian Hand Surgery Society, the Australian Society of Plastic Surgeons and the American Society of Surgery of the Hand. He has been appointed as a Clinical Associate Professor (Department of Paediatrics Royal Children's Hospital) University of Melbourne and is involved in medical education programmes (both undergraduate and postgraduate) with the University of Melbourne and the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.
A/Prof. Eugene Ek
Eugene is a fellowship-trained hand and upper limb surgeon who specializes in all aspects of hand, elbow and shoulder surgery
Eugene received his Medical Degree with Honours from the University of Melbourne in 2001. He completed his internship and basic surgical training at St. Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne, and in 2008, completed a PhD in bone and tumour biology at the University of Melbourne for research into osteosarcomas. Eugene then went on to finish his orthopaedic training in Melbourne and became a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (FRACS) in 2010.
Following the completion of his orthopaedic training, Eugene spent a further 3 years undertaking subspecialist fellowship training in hand, elbow shoulder surgery, including 12 months as an Honorary Hand Fellow at St. Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne and Dandenong Hospital under the supervision of Dr. Stephen Tham.
He completed two 6 month fellowships in shoulder and elbow surgery, the first being at the Balgrist University Hospital, University of Zurich in Switzerland under Prof. Christian Gerber, followed by a further 6 month fellowship at the Harvard Shoulder Service, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, USA under the supervision of Dr. Jon J.P. Warner.
Finally, Eugene went on to work at the Hospital for Special Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical School in New York, where he completed a 12 month ACGME-accredited fellowship in hand, upper extremity and microsurgery under renowned surgeons including Dr. Andrew Weiland, Dr. Robert Hotchkiss and Dr. Scott Wolfe.
Eugene continues to be active in teaching and in clinical and biomechanical research. He has published over 90 articles and multiple book chapters, as well as presented at many regional, national and international conferences. Academically, he is an Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor with the Department of Surgery, Monash University.
Mr Kemble Wang
Kemble Wang is an adult, adolescent, and paediatric upper limb surgeon. He is publicly employed at Royal Children's Hospital and Eastern Health as a consultant upper limb surgeon. He underwent orthopaedic surgical training in Melbourne, Victoria. He then underwent subspecialty fellowship training in upper limb surgery at the Melbourne Orthopaedic Group. This was followed with further training in neuromuscular orthopaedic, paediatric orthopaedics, and upper limb surgery in USA. He is currently serving as the scientific secretary of the victorian branch of the Australian Orthopaedic Association. Kemble's main research interest is in upper limb motion analysis and 4D CT analysis