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About Dr Susannah Bloch

Dr Susannah Bloch spends most of her NHS practice looking after lung cancer patients and her aim is to make sure patients have rapid access to diagnostics and all the support they need through their pathway, including timely reassurance and the discharge of patients who don’t have lung cancer. Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust has one of the best lung cancer survival rates in the country, and Dr Bloch uses her NHS expertise to similarly look after her private patients.

Dr Bloch trained at St Mary Hospital and completed her PhD at the Royal Brompton Hospital. She has many years’ experience of looking after very unwell respiratory patients in high dependency care, and in her current role, she is responsible for all of the lung cancer referrals to Imperial as well as the respiratory high dependency units. She also sees and looks after all general respiratory issues, runs a busy general respiratory clinic, covers the wards and is part of the general medical on-call rota.

Dr Bloch is also an honorary clinical lecturer at Imperial College London.

Memberships

  • Royal College of Physicians
  • British Thoracic Society
  • European Respiratory Society
  • Medical Defence Union
  • Member of the Royal Marsden Partners Lung Pathway Group
  • General Medical Council

Areas of Expertise

Dr Bloch has a particular focus on the following conditions:

  • Lung Cancer
  • Lung Nodules
  • Non-invasive ventilation
  • COVID/ Post-COVID syndromes
  • Respiratory failure
  • General respiratory disease

Some of the treatments and procedures Dr Bloch offers are:

  • Bronchoscopy

Personal Biography

Dr Susannah Bloch is a respiratory physician and her NHS practice is at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, Imperial College’s busy acute hospital. She is the lead for Lung Cancer for Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and runs the Imperial Lung Cancer MDT working closely with the wider thoracic and oncology teams. She is also responsible for managing the lung cancer pathway for patients from pre-diagnosis, supporting patients through their diagnosis and then on to referral for treatment.

Dr Bloch also runs the acute Non-Invasive Ventilation service and the Acute Respiratory Unit. She does acute general medical on calls and looks after general medical and respiratory inpatients. She also leads the tracheostomy ward round and manages inpatient tracheostomy weaning off ICU. Her experience includes management of obesity hypoventilation and obstructive sleep apnoea with NIV and CPAP. Besides this, she also does a general respiratory clinic diagnosing and treating all general respiratory diseases and has a weekly bronchoscopy list.

Dr Bloch trained at St Mary’s Hospital, Imperial College School of Medicine in London and since qualifying has also gained both an MSc in respiratory medicine and a research PhD in the field of post critical illness muscle wasting.

“….. A massive thank you for looking after me.. you have gone above and beyond, have been so caring and understanding. I really appreciate it and just wanted to let you know how incredibly special you are.”  – Patient LI 2018

Patient of Dr Susannah Bloch

Research and Publications

BTS QI tool for NIV

NIV – quality improvement research project

Mummery V, Rogers E, Padmanaban V, Matthew D, Woodcock T, Bloch S. Transcutaneous CO2 measurement is not a reliable alternative to  arterial blood gas sampling in the acute medical setting. Accepted for publication December 2018 European Respiratory Journal

Connolly M, Paul R, Farre-Garros R, Natanek SA, Bloch S, Lee J, Lorenzo JP, Patel H, Cooper C, Sayer AA, Wort SJ, Griffiths M, Polkey MI, Kemp PR. miR-424-5p reduces ribosomal RNA and protein synthesis in muscle wasting.  J Cachexia Sarcopenia Muscle. 2018 Apr;9(2):400-416. doi: 10.1002/jcsm.12266. Epub 2017 Dec 7.

Garros RF, Paul R, Connolly M, Lewis A, Garfield BE, Natanek SA, Bloch S, Mouly V, Griffiths MJ, Polkey MI, Kemp PR. MicroRNA-542 Promotes Mitochondrial Dysfunction and SMAD Activity and Is Elevated in Intensive Care Unit-acquired Weakness. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2017 Dec 1;196(11):1422-1433. doi: 10.1164/rccm.201701-0101OC.

Patel M, Lee J, Baz M, Wells C, Bloch S, Lewis A, Donaldson A, Garfield B, Hopkinson N, Natanek A, Man W, Wells D, Baker E, Polkey M, Kemp P. Growth and differentiation factor-15 is associated with muscle mass in COPD and promotes muscle wasting in vivo. J Cachexia Sarcopenia and Muscle Dec 2015 doi:10.1002/jcsm.12096

Bloch SA, Donaldson AV, Lewis A, Banya W, Polkey MI, Griffiths MJ, Kemp PR. MiR-181a: a potential biomarker of acute muscle wasting following elective high-risk cardiothoracic surgery. Critical Care 2015 Apr 7;19(1):147

Bloch SA, Lee JY, Syburra T, Rosendahl U, Griffiths MJ, Kemp PR, Polkey MI. Increased expression of GDF-15 may mediate ICU-acquired weakness by down-regulating muscle microRNAs. Thorax. 2014 Dec 16. pii: thoraxjnl-2014-206225

Bloch S, Lee J, Wort S, Polkey M, Kemp P, Griffiths M. Sustained elevation of circulating GDF-15 and a dynamic imbalance in mediators of muscle homeostasis are associated with the development of acute muscle wasting following cardiac surgery. Crit Care Med. 2013 Apr;41(4):982-9

Bloch S, Polkey M, Griffiths M, Kemp P. Molecular Mechanisms of Intensive Care Unit Acquired Weakness. Eur Respir J 2012 Apr;39(4):1000-11

Shrikrishna D, Patel M, Tanner RJ, Seymour JM, Connolly BA, Puthucheary ZA, Walsh SL, Bloch SA, Sidhu PS, Hart N, Kemp PR, Moxham J, Polkey MI, Hopkinson NS. Quadriceps wasting and physical inactivity in patients with COPD Eur Respir J 2012 Feb 23.

McNab FW, Berry MP, Graham CM, Bloch SA, Oni T, Wilkinson KA, Wilkinson RJ, Kon OM, Banchereau J, Chaussabel D, O’Garra A. Programmed Death Ligand 1 is over-expressed by neutrophils in the blood of patients with active Tuberculosis. Eur J Immunol. 2011 Jul;41(7):1941-7

Berry MP, Graham CM, McNab FW, Xu Z, Bloch SA, Oni T, Wilkinson KA, Banchereau R, Skinner J, Wilkinson RJ, Quinn C, Blankenship D, Dhawan R, Cush JJ, Mejias A, Ramilo O, Kon OM, Pascual V, Banchereau J, Chaussabel D, O’Garra A . An interferon-inducible neutrophil-driven blood transcriptional signature in human tuberculosis. Nature. 2010 Aug 19;466(7309):973-7.

Research interest

  • Lung Cancer, Lung nodules
  • Acute respiratory failure
  • Muscle weakness
  • Quality improvement

Awards

  • Shortlisted for the ICS State of The Art Meeting Gold Medal Award (2014)
  • International Trainee Scholarship travel award ATS (2014)
  • British Lung Foundation travel award (2014)
  • Glazer Prize in Surgery (2003): Clinical Surgical Finals
  • The St Mary’s Association Elective Award (2002)
  • Barber McNee Award (2000): Intercalated BSc Prize
  • Hawker Scholarship (1999): MBBS parts I, II, III
  • Ranked second in the year (1999)

  • Why did you choose to become a part of OneWelbeck?

    I wanted to work with a group of colleagues dedicated to providing high-quality respiratory care in a team with patients at the center of their service

  • What are the moments which stand out most in your career so far?

    Working on the front line during the covid pandemic. I ran the respiratory high dependency unit at St Marys and I was overwhelmed by the amazing effort and dedication of the multi-professional team. It was a dark time, but the emotion and understanding of our patient and their relatives and working with such incredible colleagues made it possible to achieve what we did.

  • What keeps you busy in your personal life?

    2 small children, knitting and running

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