Tse-Ling Fong

MD, FACP, FAASLD

Dr. Tse-Ling Fong’s career has spanned more than four decades, encompassing clinical practice, academic medicine, medical education, research, and professional service, with a primary focus on chronic liver disease and liver transplantation.

Dr. Fong grew up in Hong Kong. He earned a Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, from the University of California, San Diego, followed by a Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Southern California (USC). He completed his residency in internal medicine at LAC/USC Medical Center and subsequently pursued fellowship training in hepatology at the USC Liver Unit and Rancho Los Amigos Medical Center, followed by a fellowship in gastroenterology at LAC/USC Medical Center. He later served as a Clinical Associate in the Liver Diseases Section of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases at the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Fong has held academic appointments at both the University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles. From 2001 to 2021, he served as Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and was named Associate Professor Emeritus of Clinical Medicine upon his retirement from full-time academia in 2021.
Throughout his clinical career, Dr. Fong has held leadership positions in several prominent liver transplantation and hepatology programs. These include Associate Medical Director of the Liver Transplantation Program at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Medical Director of the Liver Transplantation Program at USC, Program Director of the Asian Pacific Liver Center at St. Vincent Medical Center, and Program Director of the Liver Program at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian.

Dr. Fong has maintained a longstanding commitment to medical education. During more than two decades at the Keck School of Medicine, he taught medical students and participated regularly in the education of internal medicine residents. He has also organized continuing medical education programs, including serving as co-organizer of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) Postgraduate Course in 2018. In addition, he has mentored undergraduate and medical students, residents, fellows, and junior faculty, many of whom have gone on to academic and clinical leadership positions.

His research has focused on viral hepatitis, liver transplantation, hepatocellular carcinoma, metabolic liver disease, drug-induced liver injury, and transplant outcomes. As principal investigator or co-principal investigator, he has led multiple investigator-initiated studies supported by industry and institutional funding. He has authored or co-authored nearly 100 peer-reviewed publications, contributing to advances in the understanding and management of hepatitis B and C, liver transplantation, chronic liver disease, and related disorders. His work has appeared in leading medical journals, including Hepatology, Gastroenterology, Annals of Internal Medicine, Transplantation, and the Journal of Hepatology.

Dr. Fong is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and a Fellow of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, where he has served on the Clinical Research, Educational, and Publications Committees. He has also served on institutional review boards and hospital committees, participated in scientific advisory boards, and contributed to numerous medical journals as an editorial board member and manuscript reviewer.

His professional accomplishments have been recognized through numerous honors, including undergraduate and medical school research fellowships, the Golden Apple Teaching Award at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, and repeated selection to Best Doctors in America. He remains active in clinical hepatology at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian while continuing his scholarly contributions to the fields of liver disease and transplantation.

Beyond medicine, Dr. Fong is equally proud of the life he has built outside of his professional career. He shares his life with his beautiful wife, Karla, and is the proud father of three adult children, Matt, Megan, and Allan. Also holding a very special place in his heart is Abby the Labby, his beloved Labrador and, as he affectionately admits, his “favorite child.” When he is not caring for patients or contributing to the field of hepatology, you can often find him on the pickleball court, where he enjoys one of his favorite pastimes and a little friendly competition.

​