Dr Phaik Yeong Cheah, an Associate Professor of Oxford University is  based in Bangkok at the Wellcome Programme. She is currently the head of a new department, called the Department of Bioethics and Engagement. The department works on ethical issues arising from conducting research and working with vulnerable populations such as children, pregnant women, migrants as well as other disadvantaged and hard-to-reach populations.  In addition, the department’s remit also includes developing and managing the programme’s community and public engagement work either programme-wide (e.g. the artist-in-residence programme), location-specific (e.g. supporting the long running Tak Province Community Ethics Advisory Board) or study specific. She is particularly interested in ethical issues in community engagement and paediatric research.

Phaik Yeong was the head of the Clinical Trials Support Group within the Programme which is a group that helps researchers run clinical trials for seven years.  Before moving to Bangkok, she worked in the Clinical Trials & Research Governance office in Oxford where her responsibilities included advising, reviewing and approving research protocols, providing research ethics and Good Clinical Practice training for researchers, and monitoring and auditing clinical trials on behalf of the University. Phaik Yeong started working in clinical trials in 1998 when she started her PhD work on chronic prostatitis in Penang, Malaysia.