Associate Professor Dr. Liew Yew Toong is a Consultant Head & Neck Oncosurgeon and Medical Lecturer in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery at the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur. He also serves as Director of the Silent Mentor Centre, Universiti Malaya, and is a National Head & Neck Soft Body Anatomy Trainer.

Dr. Liew is internationally fellowship-trained in Head & Neck Surgery from Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Korea. He obtained his MBBS from the University of Malaya (2008), MRCS from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (2014), and Master of ORL–Head & Neck Surgery from the University of Malaya (2016).

A pioneer in advancing head and neck cancer care in Malaysia, he led the first surgical team in the country to implement Intraoperative Radiotherapy (IORT) for head and neck cancer. His clinical expertise includes ENT, thyroid and parathyroid oncosurgery, head and neck cancer, and paediatric ENT.

Dr. Liew is an active clinician-scientist with an H-index of 36, approximately 5696 citations, over 50 peer-reviewed publications, four books, and more than RM800,000 in research grants. He regularly serves as a peer reviewer for ISI-indexed journals and is a National Postgraduate ENT Examiner.

His professional memberships include the Academy of Medicine Malaysia, the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, and the Korean ORL–HNS Society. He has received multiple University of Malaya Service Excellence Awards and the Merit Award at the National Cancer Congress 2024.

Larissa Sweeny, MD, is an Associate Professor at the University of Miami Health System in Miami, Florida. Her clinical interests include head and neck surgical oncology and microvascular reconstruction. Her research focuses on tumor immunometabolism, specifically how cancer cell metabolism affects immune cell function and disease progression.

A native of Florida, Dr. Sweeny earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Florida and her medical degree from Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, DC. She then completed her Otolaryngology residency training at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. During that time, she also completed an NIH Research Fellowship in Head and Neck Oncology at the same institution.  Dr. Sweeny completed additional surgical training through a fellowship in Advanced Head and Neck Surgical Oncology and Microvascular Reconstruction at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Dr. Sweeny currently serves as Chair of the Reconstructive Head and Neck Surgery Section of the American Head and Neck Society. In parallel, she has had long-standing service within the American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery, including committee leadership, participation on national panels, and scientific session moderation. She is committed to education and contributes to content development for the American Board of Otolaryngology. She also serves as an Associate Editor for Head & Neck and is a reviewer for multiple other journals.

Dr. Sweeny has authored more than 60 peer-reviewed publications and participates in ongoing national collaborations supported by translational and team-science initiatives related to head and neck oncology, tumor behavior, and cancer imaging strategies. Her clinical research focuses on outcomes for patients undergoing head and neck free flap reconstruction, laryngectomy, salvage surgery for oropharyngeal malignancies, and surgical management of metastatic cutaneous malignancies involving the parotid gland.