Biography

Dr Chua graduated in 1995 from the University of London with First Class Honours in an intercalated BSc in Immunopathology, the Robert Dick Finals Prize in Medicine and Surgery, a university distinction in General Pathology and the Helen Webb Prize in Diseases of Children. He attained membership of the Royal College of Physicians (London) in 1998.

In 2000, Dr Chua was awarded a Wellcome Research Training Fellowship to undertake a PhD degree investigating experimental lung fibrosis. This work involved defining specific biochemical and cellular mechanisms implicated in promoting lung scarring.

Dr Chua’s postgraduate clinical training included posts at Hammersmith Hospital, Royal Brompton Hospital and University College London Hospital. In 2007, he was appointed as a consultant at St George's Hospital, where he established an interstitial lung disease service, led the hospital's tuberculosis chest service, and was care group lead from for respiratory medicine from 2011 until 2014, at which point he joined Royal Brompton Hospital. 

Dr Chua is an honorary senior lecturer at the National Heart & Lung Institute, Imperial College London, and a member of a European Respiratory Society task force for developing guidance on transition care for paediatric ILD patients entering adulthood. In 2022, he was appointed as the clinical lead in rare diseases for the Southeast England Genomics Laboratory Hub.

Areas of expertise

Dr Chua has expertise in diagnosing and treating different types of interstitial lung diseases (ILD), such as: 

• idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and other fibrotic lung diseases,
• sarcoidosis
• lung disease associated with underlying connective tissue (rheumatological) disorders or exposure to particular triggers like environmental hazards or drugs
• rare and complex lung conditions such as pleuroparenchymal fibroelastosis (PPFE), vasculitis and cystic lung diseases.

Teaching

Dr Chua delivers lectures on his areas of expertise and contributes to specialist respiratory meetings including complex case discussions. He is a clinical supervisor at Royal Brompton Hospital and since 2019, has chaired a monthly multidisciplinary discussion (MMD) of ILD cases with physicians in Malaysia and Singapore.

Publications

Dr Chua is actively involved in ILD research. A list of his published papers can be found on Pubmed (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/).

Dr Chua’s contributions to chapters in specialist and reference texts include:

• Z Wu, P Molyneaux and F Chua. Non-IPF idiopathic interstitial pneumonias. In: Carbone RG, Puppo F, Wille K and Shah PL, eds. Interstitial Lung Disease: From Diagnosis to Treatment. New York: Nova Science Publishers Inc. Submitted 2022; publication scheduled for 2023.
• George PM, Singh S and Chua F. Organising pneumonia in the intensive care unit. In: The Oxford Textbook of Critical Care Medicine. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Submitted 2022; publication scheduled late 2022.
• Plate M, Chua F and Laurent GJ. Fibroblasts. In: Laurent GJ and Shapiro SD, eds. Encyclopedia of Pulmonary Medicine. New York: Academic Press Inc., 2006. Revised in 2021; scheduled for publication in 2022.
• Srikanthan K, Chua F, Shah P. Haemoptysis. Chapter in: Waldmann C, Soni N, Rhodes A, eds. Oxford Desk Reference in Critical Care, 2^nd edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019.
• Chua F and Saunders P. Systemic disease and the lung. Chapter in Respiratory Disorders. Medicine. Elsevier Publishers, UK, 2016; 44(6): 351-54.
• Leach R and Chua F. Diffuse parenchymal (interstitial) lung diseases. In: R Leach, D Bell and K Moore, eds. Oxford Desk Reference: Acute Medicine. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Chapter 5. Respiratory diseases and respiratory failure, 2016: 225 – 232.
• Russell G, O’Connor S and Chua F. Sarcoidosis masking as infection – illustrative case and expert commentary. In: Challenging Concepts in Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
• Chua F, Laurent GJ, Gauldie J and Kolb M. Animal models of interstitial lung disease. In: Schwarz MI and King Jr TE, eds. Interstitial lung disease. 5^th Edition. Ontario: BC Decker Inc., 2010: 267 – 279.

Private patient referral

If you would like to make an appointment with this specialist for private care, contact the RB&HH Specialist care team.