Cheah Fook Choe FAMM, FRCPCH, FRACP, MMed, MRCP, MD, PhD

Dr. Cheah Fook Choe is currently the Head and Professor of Paediatrics and senior consultant neonatologist at the National University of Malaysia Medical Centre (UKM). Prof. Cheah has been a consultant at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of UKM, for more than 10 years. This unit supports an active feto-maternal and assisted reproductive health facility with up to 7000 deliveries per year. Prof. Cheah was also the director of this unit from 2009 before going away for a research sabbatical in 2014 in the USA and New Zealand. The NICU of UKM is active in quality assurance programs and contributes to the Vermont-Oxford Neonatal Network, an international quality collaborative initiative involving more than 1300 hospitals in the USA and worldwide. Prof. Cheah completed specialty training in general pediatrics and was awarded a Master in Medicine (Paeds) by UKM in 1997. His neonatology subspecialty training commenced in 1997 at the Mater Mothers’ Hospital in Brisbane, Australia, and subsequently at the Maternity Hospital Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. From 2000-2003, he was the Neonatal Fellow at the Christchurch Women’s Hospital, New Zealand, completing advanced neonatal pediatrics training while pursuing a Ph.D. degree during that period. This successfully culminated in him receiving a Ph.D. (Otago) and the FRACP in 2003. Prof. Cheah further received postdoctoral research experience as a visiting scientist in pulmonary and perinatal biology at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, the USA between 2006 and 2008.

Prof. Cheah has many research interests with various clinical and translational research grants, and involvement in international multi-center collaborative trials that include Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, and the USA. His major research interests are in newborn and preterm lung diseases, intrauterine infection and fetal inflammation, oxidative stress in G6PD deficient newborn infants, and neonatal nutrition. In 2011, Prof. Cheah received the Best Research Award at the Asian Society for Pediatric Research joint meeting with the Pediatric Academic Societies in Denver, USA for his work on the role of GM-CSF and macrophage recruitment in the lung during the perinatal period. He has published several books and book chapters such as “Lung Disease of the Preterm Infant and Effects of Intrauterine Infection” and “Feeding the Preterm Infant – a Practical Handbook” and about 50 papers that are well-cited, with an H-index of 15.

Prof. Cheah is an accredited trainer in neonatology and has trained many postgraduate trainees and neonatal fellows, both local and international, especially from Indonesia. He is currently the Chief of the Joint Programme in Paediatric Specialty training for Malaysia. Recently, he was appointed to the Neonatology Subspecialty Subcommittee on Medical Education of the Malaysian Medical Council. He is also an examiner for the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, UK, the Malaysian Conjoined Board Examinations in Paediatrics, and had been an external examiner in pediatrics for the Bangladesh College of Physicians and Surgeons.

With regard to continuing professional development, Prof. Cheah is currently the Vice-President of the College of Paediatrics, Academy of Medicine of Malaysia, and also a member/fellow of various professional bodies in perinatology, neonatology, pediatric infectious diseases, and lung research. He has also served as a member of editorial boards (Medicine and Health, Malaysian Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health, Frontiers in Pediatrics) and reviewer of various medical journals as well as a scientific advisor for non-governmental organizations and medical-related industries.