George Z. Cheng, MD, PhD

George Cheng, MD, PhD, is a board-certified pulmonologist who specializes in interventional pulmonology. He performs minimally invasive procedures for diagnosis and treatment of lung and pleural diseases. These include malignant and benign diseases of the lung, such as lung cancer, sarcoidosis, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), pulmonary fibrosis and other conditions.

Dr. Cheng specializes in treating airway problems such as airway tumors, airway narrowing, asthma, COPD, and pleural disease (i.e. fluid around the lung) with minimally invasive approaches. He serves as the medical director of interventional pulmonary, bronchoscopy and pleural services. Dr. Cheng enjoys having a close relationship with his patients and derives great pleasure in seeing them improve in their breathing after treatment.

Prior to joining UC San Diego Health, Dr. Cheng was a faculty member at Duke University with appointments in both the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine and the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, in Durham, N.C.

In addition to his clinical work, Dr. Cheng has performed significant research in technology and clinical innovations within interventional pulmonology. He received the CIMIT (Consortia for Improving Medicine with Innovation & Technology) Young Clinician Award from Harvard Medical School for his work on development of 3D printing-guided personalized airway prostheses. Through fostering collaborations with engineering groups, he has also developed models to test both SLIPS-augmented bronchoscopes and elastin-based photocurable elastic glue as a surgical suture replacement, which resulted in multiple patents and papers.

Dr. Cheng completed a pulmonary/critical care medicine fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Combined Pulmonary Critical Care Training Program and an interventional pulmonology fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, where he also completed his residency in internal medicine. Dr. Cheng earned his medical and doctoral degree from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine He is board certified in internal medicine, pulmonary disease and critical care medicine.

He is also a diplomate of the American Association of Bronchology and Interventional Pulmonology.

Outside of work, Dr. Cheng enjoys spending time with his family, photography, cooking, skiing, scuba diving, and reading about new technology developments. He speaks fluent Mandarin.

UC San Diego Health Links
For more information, see Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and Interventional Pulmonology.