When Alasdair Hotston Moore graduated from Cambridge vet school in 1990, his plan was to study for a PhD in immunology. Nearly 3 decades later he still hasn’t found time for that doctorate but he has done lots of other things – lecturing in soft tissue surgery at Bristol, managing a private surgical service and now his biggest challenge – as the first westerner to run a referral hospital in China. (The interview with Alasdair Hotston Moore took place before the coronavirus pandemic)