An interview with Professor Cheng Hock Toh
Professor Cheng Hock Toh is Professor of Haematology within the Institute of Infection, Veterinary and Ecological Sciences. He is Chair of the National Blood Transfusion Committee and is standing for election this year for the Presidency of the Royal College of Physicians. He has also recently been named as an honorary Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) by Her Majesty The Queen. We talked to Professor Toh about his career and achievements so far.
Please tell us about your role at the University and a bit about your speciality in haematology
I am an academic whose clinical work in bleeding and thrombotic disorders is undertaken from the Roald Dahl Haemostasis & Thrombosis Centre, part of Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. My work is primarily focused on how blood clotting changes can adversely affect outcome in critically ill patients, especially with sepsis, and how its re-equilibration can lead to clinical improvement.
How did you come to work at the University of Liverpool?
Originally from Malaysia, I have lived and worked in Liverpool for 27 years. I completed my medical degree with honours at the University of Sheffield and developed my interest in haematology during a student elective at Johns Hopkins University. My experiences at the Ontario Heart and Stroke Research Programme, at the Mayo Clinic and National Institute for Health Research paved the way for my progress as a translational clinical investigator and development of intellectual property to spin out a small medium enterprise for diagnostics in sepsis.
What do you enjoy most about being a doctor?
I enjoy the privilege of being entrusted to investigate a patient’s clinical problem and the opportunity to make a difference to the patient’s health in addition to advancing disease understanding for the benefit of more patients.
What has been your proudest achievement to date?
I think it has to be my first Medical Research Council grant to understand a new mechanism in sepsis. It felt that I had arrived as a researcher.
What advice would you give to aspiring medical students?
Be the best that you can be and take disappointments as part of learning and life experience. Do not take yourself too seriously but take your work seriously!
What hobbies do you have outside of work?
I have pretensions as an artist (water colourist) but will leave my wife as the only professional artist in the household for now!
Professor Cheng Hock Toh biography
Professor Toh was born in Ipoh, Malaysia, and is fourth-generation Chinese. He arrived in the UK in 1978 to study A-levels at a Somerset boarding school, before graduating from medical school at the University of Sheffield.
His interest in haematology began during a student elective at the internationally renowned clinical and academic centre, Johns Hopkins Hospital, in Baltimore, USA. He later developed translational research skills on the Ontario Heart and Stroke Research Programme at Queen’s University in Canada.
His career at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital began in 1995. Alongside his role as a clinician, Professor Toh is heavily involved in academic research and education. He is a professor of haematology at the University of Liverpool.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Professor Toh undertook research into the relationship between Covid-19 and histones. Watch the video
Professor Toh was elected president of the British Society of Haematology between 2018 and 2020. He was also academic vice president of the Royal College of Physicians between 2018 and 2021.