Christina Liew Siaw Cheok, MBChB, MSc, PhD
College of Health Sciences
Program Director, Medical Doctor Program
Biography
Dr Christina Liew Siaw Cheok is a medical educator and medical simulation specialist with 17 years of expertise in simulation-based education for undergraduate medical students., with a focus on clinical, communication, and procedural skills. She graduated from the United Kingdom and completed her training within the National Health Service (NHS) before earning a Master of Science in Medical and Health Sciences (Molecular Medicine). Dr. Liew subsequently pursued specialized training in medical simulation and patient safety, obtaining a Master of Science from the University of Galway, Ireland. Her doctoral (PhD) research is in the field of Medical Education.
From 2016 to 2023, Dr. Liew served as the Academic Lead of Clinical Competencies for the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) in collaboration with Perdana University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In this role, she was actively involved in clinical skills education and assessment. She has held multiple appointments as chief examiner for undergraduate medical clinical skills assessments, including the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE). Additionally, she served as the Lead of the medical simulation center at her previous institution, overseeing the management and operations of the unit from 2021 to 2023.
Currently, Dr. Liew is the Program Director for the MD Program at VinUniversity. Previously, she served as the Assessment Lead for the program, where she introduced programmatic assessment for the clinical years, establishing a comprehensive and continuous evaluation framework. In this capacity, she was responsible for the development, implementation, and refinement of assessment strategies to ensure alignment with educational objectives and accreditation standards. As part of these efforts, she introduced the OSCE as a key clinical assessment tool and implemented psychometric analysis to enhance the validity and reliability of assessment outcomes. Dr. Liew is a FAIMER Fellow and, in 2022, became the fourth Malaysian recipient of a fully funded scholarship to pursue advanced training in health professions education and leadership through the International FAIMER Institute, an ECFMG affiliate (Intealth), based in Philadelphia, USA. She has been actively engaged in medical school accreditation processes at both national and international levels, advocating for curriculum alignment with global standards, which has contributed to successful accreditation outcomes and advancements in educational practices.
Her research focuses on medical education, and she actively serves as a peer reviewer for scientific journals while also contributing to public scholarship through newspaper articles on health-related topics. Dr. Liew currently holds the position of Honorary Associate Professor at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland–University College Dublin (RUMC) and serves as an International Scholar at the Center for Global Health, University of Pennsylvania, USA.
- Simulation based medical education; medical education
- OSCE
- Telemedicine
- Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase gene polymorphism
- Liew SC*, Phi T. Dual-Phase Standardized Patient Training: Merging Content Expertise with Acting Skills. Medical Education 2025. 1111/medu.15647
- Liew SC*, Mayne J. Developing a Clinical Competency Committee for Undergraduate Medical Education. Medical Education 2025. 1111/medu.15667
- Nguyen TQ, Tran LDD, Liew SC*. The bridge model: Transforming anatomy education through dynamic co-teaching. Medical Education. 2025. doi:10.1111/medu.15738.
- Ha, T. M., Nguyen, Q. T., Liew, S. C., Mayne, J., & Le, P. V. The transition to clerkships bootcamp: Innovative and flexible curriculum strategies post COVID-19 adaptation. Medical education. 2025; 59: 232–233. https://doi.org/10.1111/medu.15573
- Liew SC, Pallath V, Rasali Y, et al. Knowledge, attitude, and practice of virtual consultation among outpatients at a teaching hospital in Malaysia. Plos One. 2023.
- Spooner M., Larkin J, Liew SC, et al. “Tell me what is ‘better’!” How medical students experience feedback, through the lens of self-regulatory learning. BMC Medical Education 2023 (23): 895. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-023-04842-9
- Liew SC, Tan MP, Breen E, et al. Microlearning and online simulation-based virtual consultation training module for the undergraduate medical curriculum – a preliminary evaluation. BMC Medical Education 2023; 23: 796-806. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-023-04777-1.
- Liew SC*, Aung T. Sleep deprivation and its association with diseases- A Review. Sleep Medicine. 2021; 77: 192- 204. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2020.07.048.
- Liew SC*, Fadil Azim D. In someone else’s shoes, are all wearers the same?: Empathy in multi-ethnic Asian medical students. Journal of Taibah University of Medical Sciences. 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtumed.2021.11.007.
- Liew SC*, Naik V, Fadil Azim D. Anonymous Audience Response Technology in Image-Based Quiz (IBQ) Neuropathology Lecture for Undergraduate Pre-clinical Medical Students: a Comparison with Traditional Lectures. Medical Science Educator. 2021; 31(6):1889-1894. doi: 10.1007/s40670-021-01433-5.
- Liew SC*, Sidhu J, Barua A. No More live lectures – Quixotism or Realism-? Association between learning Preferences and Attendances at live lectures. British Journal of Medicine and Medical Research 2017; 20(12): 1-10.
- Liew SC*, Sidhu JK, Barua A. The relationship between learning preferences (styles and approaches) and learning outcomes among pre-clinical undergraduate medical students. BMC Medical Education 2015; 15:44.
- Liew SC, Sow CF, Sidhu JK, Nadarajah VD. The peer tutoring programme: Embracing the “Doctors- to teach” philosophy- a comparison of the effects of participation between the senior and junior peer tutors. Medical Education Online 2015; 20: 27959.
- Liew SC*, Dutta S, Sidhu JK, De-Alwis R, Chen N, Sow CF, Barua A. Assessors for communication skills: SPs or healthcare professionals? Medical Teacher 2014; 36: 626-31.
- Liew SC*. Folic acid and diseases – supplement it or not? Revista da Associacao Medica Brasileira 2016; 62: 90-100.
- Liew SC*, Das-Gupta E. Methylenetetrahtdrofolate reductase (MTHFR) C677T polymorphism: Epidemiology, metabolism and the associated disease. European Journal of Medical Genetics 2015; 58:1-10.
- Liew SC*, Das-Gupta E, Wong SF, Lee N, Safdar N, Jamil A. Association of methylentetraydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) 677 C > T gene polymorphism and homocysteine levels in psoriasis vulgaris patients from Malaysia: a case-control study. Nutrition Journal 2012; 11:1.
- Liew SC*, Das-Gupta E, Chakravarthi S, Wong SF, Lee N, Safdar N, Jamil A. Differential expression of the angiogenesis growth factors in psoriasis vulgaris. BMC Research Notes 2012; 5:201.
- MBChB (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery), University of Liverpool, UK
- MSc (Molecular Medicine), International Medical University, Malaysia
- MSc (Medical Simulation and Patient Safety), University of Galway, Ireland
- PhD (Medical Education), Universiti Malaya, Malaysia
- Fellow, International FAIMER Institute (IFI), Philadelphia, USA
QS Reimagine Education Award 2025 (Shortlisted) – Dual-Phase ICE-CREAM Innovation Transforming Standardized Patient Training Approaches
