Professor Rupert Leong is a Senior Staff Specialist gastroenterologist, Director of Endoscopy and Head of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Services at Concord Hospital, Clinical Professor of Medicine at University of Sydney and Macquarie University, Sydney Australia. He is an executive director of Central Sydney Private Hospital and heads the IBD Services at Central Sydney Private Hospital and Macquarie University Hospital. He received a Career Development Fellow ship (level 2 clinical) of the NHMRC, which was awarded to only 5 individuals that year.

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Prof Leong has appeared on ABC Catalyst, the Today Show, Nine National News, Channel 10 News, radio 2GB and features regularly on news forums relating to research and new advances in gastroenterology medications or endoscopic procedures.   

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Prof Leong has published over 265 (h index 62 and over 13,400 citations) high quality scientific journals publications in Nature Reviews, Gastroenterology, Gut, Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology and Endoscopy. Amongst these are senior authorships of national and international consensus clinical practice guidelines in both Australia and in Asia. Guidelines on the management of acute severe ulcerative colitis, therapeutic drug monitoring of IBD biological agents, regulation and use of faecal microbiota transplantation were published in peer-reviewed journals, have been widely cited and endorsed by national and international gastroenterological societies. He is an associated editor of Therapeutic Advances in Gastroenterology and serves on the international editorial boards of the American Journal of Gastroenterology, Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics and Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, some of the highest impact journals in the field of gastroenterology.

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Professor Leong is an executive member of a number of government bodies including the Agency for Clinical Innovation of NSW Health nominated for expertise in IBD and the Cancer Council of Australia Working Party on the revision of the clinical practice guidelines for colonoscopy and colorectal cancer, leading the section on surveillance colonoscopy in inflammatory bowel disease. Her chaired the Clinical Working Group advising the Therapeutic Goods Administration on the regulation of faecal microbiota transplantation. The document has since been published in the top gastroenterology specialty journal Gut. Professor Leong was awarded the American Gastroenterological Association Fellowship by invitation on the basis of research excellence in 2012. He is the founding director of IBD Sydney, IBD School and IBD Masterclass. 

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With over 20 years' experience in patient-care, Prof Leong is widely recognized for his knowledge, care, meticulous-planning and endoscopy skills especially on the role of advanced imaging techniques, colon cancer diagnostic strategies and treatment of Crohn's disease strictures. He consults at Macquarie University Hospital (Suite 404, 2 Technology Place, Macquarie Uni 98123880) and in Sydney Central Business District (Specialist Medical Services, Level 11, 501 George St, Sydney 83781721). He heads the IBD Services of Concord Hospital, Sydney. His global reputation has led to speaking engagements and live endoscopy demonstrations around the world including in USA, Germany, China, Hong Kong, Singapore. He is a primary supervisor of PhD, MPhil and Masters by Research students and has supervised international gastroenterology fellows from Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Sweden, UK, Wales, Ireland and Northern Ireland. He is principal investigator of a number of clinical drug trials. 

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Training

Professor Leong completed his FRACP advanced training in Clinical Immunology and Gastroenterology in 2000 in Western Australia and was awarded the prestigious Amy and Athelstan Overseas Research Fellowship of University of Western Australia. He was the only recipient to receive 2-years of back-to-back fellowship (2001, 2002). As Visiting Scholar at The Prince of Wales Hospital, Shatin, Hong Kong, he completed his MD thesis (2004) on the Epidemiology of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases in the Chinese Population – the first comprehensive series of epidemiological studies of IBD in an Asian population. The novel research subsequently awarded Leong the Gastroenterological Society of Australia Researcher on the Rise, the Young Achiever Award of the Australian Chinese Medical Association and the American Gastroenterological Association Fellowship by invitation on the basis of research excellence. Leong conducted the first genetic research of IBD genes on the Chinese population [Leong RW, et al. NOD2/CARD15 gene polymorphisms and Crohn's disease in the Chinese population. Aliment Pharmacol Ther. 2003;17:1465-70]. Prof Leong was nominated for Emerging Leader by the Gastroenterological Society of Australia (http://www.gesa.org.au/index.cfm//about-gesa/emerging-leaders-lectureship-jghf-nominees/) and in 2015 he was the Trans-Tasman lecturer of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (http://www.gesa.org.au/about-gesa/trans-tasman-lecturers/)  speaking at the national conference in New Zealand and in 2017 the prestigious Nimmo lecturer and the site visitor of the new Royal Adelaide Hospital. 

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Named Lectureships

In 2017, Leong was the Nimmo Lecturer, the named lectureship of the new Royal Adelaide Hospital. In 2015, Leong was the Trans-Tasman lecturer of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and the New Zealand Society of Gastroenterology. 

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Prizes

Professor Leong was awarded the prestigious NHMRC Career Development Fellow (Clinical Level 2) in 2011. Leong has received prizes and awards including the Gastroenterological Society of Australia (GESA) Career Development Award, AstraZeneca Emerging Leader, the GESA Abbott IBD Research Award, UNSW Paper of the Year award, and the RACP Career Development Award. He supervises advanced gastroenterology trainees, Masters/ PhD students and medical students students. His students have been awarded NHMRC scholarships, Douglas Piper Young Investigator Clinical Award finalists, Institute of Digestive Diseases runner up and finalists, Concord Early Career Research Awards, Human Proteome Organization Early Career Research Travel Award and various posters of distinction at ECCO, DDW, and AGW.

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Recent Awards:

2020 

Farcombe Lecturer, McMasters University, Canada  

2017
Nimmo Lectureship: Royal Adelaide Hospital
2015
Gastroenterological Society of Australia: Emerging Leader
2015
Trans Tasman Lecturer: GESA and NZ Society of Gastroenterology
Plenary Speaker of the Gut Health Network
2015
UNSW Paper of the Year: Clinical (Faculty of Medicine, South Western Sydney Clinical School)
2012
American Gastroenterological Association Fellowship: by invitation, American Gastroenterological Association
2011
National Health Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Career Development Fellowship (Level 2, clinical, App1006223) $425,920 2010-2014. “Protein and endoscopic biomarkers in the study of inflammatory bowel diseases.” 
2010
Ferring IBD Clinician Establishment award (GESA): $20K x 2 years.
2010
UNSW Paper of the Year Prize (Faculty of Medicine, South Western Sydney Clinical School)
2010
Gastroenterological Society of Australia: AstraZeneca Career Development Award Prize (2011 – 2013); $85K x 3 years “Endoscopic and proteomic biomarkers in Crohns Disease”.
2009
Australian Chinese Medical Association: Young Achiever Award (inaugural)
2009
Endeavour Executive Award: Australian Government Department of Education Science and Training; $25K
2008
Cancer Institute of NSW Clinical Fellowship: “Novel Strategies to Optimise the Management of Pancreatic Cancer”; $163.48K
2007
Commitment to Teaching Award: Concord Clinical School, University of Sydney
2007
Clinical Research Commercialisation Workshop Fellowship Prize, Royal Australasian College of Physicians
2007
Gastroenterological Society of Australia Ferring IBD Travelling Fellowship: Marbella, Spain
2007
Cancer Institute of NSW Clinical Fellowship: “Upper GI Oncology and EUS Clinical Research”; Cancer Institute of NSW; $138K
2006
Endeavour Cheung Kong Research Fellowship: “IBD Epidemiology”; Department of Education Science and Training, Australian Government; $50K
2006
Medical Research Foundation Scholarship: “Colorectal cancer in Sydney”; Sydney South West Area Health Service; $40K
2005
Gastroenterological Society of Australia Ferring GESA Travelling Fellowship, Athens, Greece
2005
Gastroenterological Society of Australia Researcher on the Move Award

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Hospitals

Professor Leong is consultant gastroenterologist at Macquarie University Hospital (98123880), Specialist Medical Services (83781721), Concord Hospital Inflammatory Bowel Disease Clinic (97676111), Sydney Australia. 

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Research

Professor Leong’s research funding has been from the NHMRC, Gastroenterological Society of Australia, Royal Australasian College of Physicians and industry partners. He is also the principle investigator of a number of multicentre clinical drug trials offering novel advanced therapeutics in the management of inflammatory bowel diseases. Research from these studies have resulted in their listing on the Therapeutic Goods Administration and reimbursement by the Pharmaceutic Benefits Scheme of Australia. 

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Teaching

Professor Leong has a track record of successfully supervising MPhil, PhD and MD candidates within Australia and from around the world. He teaches and supervises medical undergraduate and postgraduate students of, Sydney Medical School (University of Sydney) and Macquarie University. He has won multiple teaching awards for his contributions and helped design new medical curricula. In 2012 he developed the IBD Sydney network to provide networking and educational opportunities for NSW gastroenterologists with teleconferencing to rural practitioners being a priority. Dissemination of information on new clinical drug trials had in immediate impact of rescuing patients in need of better drug treatments. In 2016 he commenced IBD School, the national teaching course for Australian gastroenterology advanced trainees and IBD Masterclass in 2018 teaching junior gastroenterologists. In 2020, IBD School and IBD Academy were launched internationally with uptake in Australasia, Asia-Pacific Region and Africa. 

 

Peer Review

Professor Leong was selected as external examiner for final MBChB medical professional examinations at Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2018. He has been a panel reviewer for research grants of the NHMRC. PhD examiner for University of Queensland, University of Melbourne. Academic promotion for University of Malaya.  

 

Societies

Professor Leong has served as executive of the Australian IBD Association and the Research Committee of GESA. He was invited to join and rejoin the Agency for Clinical Innovation of NSW Health Department. 

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