The Healthcare Workforce: Ensuring its Health and Wellbeing” Roundtable Meeting was successfully held. Exciting lectures and discussions with Prof Carol Black and other experts on healthcare workforce wellbeing, medical graduate well-being, and Hong Kong Primary Healthcare Blueprint.

Prof. Linda CHAN from the HKU Family Medicine and Primary Care Department was humbled to receive the Early Career Teaching Award and Teaching Innovation Team Award at the HKU Excellence Awards Presentation Ceremony for 2023 held on March 6, 2024. We heartily congratulate her on these achievements!

Prof. Martin Roland (@ProfRoland), Emeritus Professor of Health Services Research at the University of Cambridge, delivered a lecture on Primary Healthcare Reform in Hong Kong which was thought-provoking and well-received by over 100 participants.

Prof. William WONG, Prof. Francisco LAI, and Prof. Eric WAN of HKU Family Medicine and Primary Care received altogether 2 Faculty Research Output Awards and the Faculty Knowledge Exchange Award at the Faculty Prize Presentation Ceremony HKU Medicine on Feb 21, 2024. We warmly congratulate them on these achievements!

We hope you had a fantastic time at our christmas dinner last Sunday!  Thank you for joining us in celebrating the festive season with great food, laughter, and unforgettable memories.  Here's to an amazing year together! 

Symposium on “Healthy Families, Healthy Communities: Empowering Health through Medical Social Integration Symposium"

The Symposium on “Healthy Families, Healthy Communities: Empowering Health through Medical Social Integration” on 15 November 2023 was a great success in knowledge exchange among leaders in academia, health policy, social & community services and medicine.

Professor C. S. Lau, Dean, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, HKU, highlighted the importance of medical social integration in healthcare in his Welcome Address at the Symposium on Empowering Health through Medical Social Integration on 15 November 2023.

Ms. Annable Lee, Project Manager of the Kerry Group Kuok Foundation, introduced the vision and design of stopping trans-generation poverty through the Trekkers Family Enhancement Scheme at the Symposium on Empowering Health through Medical Social Integration on 15 November 2023.

Professor Cindy L. K. Lam presented the evidence on the effectiveness of an integrated health empowerment programme in improving the physical and mental health of families at the Symposium on Empowering Health through Medical Social Integration” on 15 November 2023.

Ms. Connie Wong, Senior Co-ordinator of the Neighbourhood Advice-Action Council, shared the success of a Youth Mental Wellness Ambassadors Programme through medical social integration at the Symposium on Empowering Health through Medical Social Integration on 15 November 2023.

Ms. Fion Lai, Chief Executive Officer of the Hong Kong Outlying Islands Women's Association, showed case the ripple effect of empowerment of women through community volunteer services at the Symposium on Empowering Health through Medical Social Integration on 15 November 2023.

Professor T. H. Lam, School of Public Health, HKU, demonstrated how the Jockey Club Family Project scaled-up the impact of healthy life-style promotion through medical-social integration at the Symposium on Empowering Health through Medical Social Integration” on 15 November 2023.

Dr. Pamela Leung, CEO of the HK Society for Rehabilitation, showed how their District Health Centre provided integrated medical and social services to meet the health needs of people at the Symposium on Empowering Health through Medical Social Integration on 15 November 2023.

Mr. Cooke Cheung, Deputy CEO of St. James’ Settlement, shared their experience on how their District Health Centre reached out to the hard-to-reach populations in the community to promote health at the Symposium on Empowering Health through Medical Social Integration on 15 November 2023.

Professor Terry Lum, Department of Social Work and Social Administration, HKU, advocated the JoyAge 3.0 collaborative stepped care model in managing elderly mental health problems at the Symposium on Empowering Health through Medical Social Integration on 15 November 2023.

The highlight of the Symposium on Empowering Health through Medical Social Integration on 15 November 2023 was the Panel Discussion on how the Government Primary Healthcare (PHC) Blueprint and District Health Centres can facilitate more effective medical social integration in PHC.

Professor William Wong, Chairperson, Department of Family Medicine & Primary Care, HKU, reinforced the importance of sharing of good practices of medical social integration in his Closing Remark at the Symposium on Empowering Health through Medical Social Integration on 15 November 2023.

The 200 participants at the Symposium on “Healthy Families, Healthy Communities: Empowering Health through Medical Social Integration” on 15 November 2023 enjoyed not only the formal presentations but also the informal networking and exchange.

Professor Cindy Lam presented a talk at the HK Primary Care Conference 2023 emphasizing the role of family doctors in serving the purpose, driving quality and benchmarking the standards of primary care.

Dr Emily Tse and her research team was granted the HKCFP Best Research Award 2022 with their research paper titled ‘Ten-Year Effectiveness of the Multidisciplinary Risk Assessment and Management Programme-Diabetes Mellitus (RAMP-DM) on Macrovascular and Microvascular Complications and All-cause Mortality: A Population-Based Cohort Study’ on 25 June 2023.

SEMINAR SERIES ON HEALTH DATA - Dr. Peter Tanuseputro



SEMINAR SERIES ON HEALTH DATA

Seminar 2: Describing health data in Canada: Lessons learnt for enabling the use of data to support research and learning health systems

Abstract:

The seminar will describe how health data is organized and used in Canada. It will outline general lessons learnt on how data is collected and used to enable: population health management, learning health systems, and integrated and accountable care. It will also detail potential opportunities for collaboration between Hong Kong and Canadian scientists interested in health services research.

Date: 24 February 2023 (Friday) 
Time: 1:00 - 2:30 pm
Venue: Boardroom, 1/F, Daniel & Mayce Yu Administration Wing, 21 Sassoon Road
For registration, Please click: https://hku.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5yHdRTK9FpdMDI2

Speaker: Dr. Peter Tanuseputro (Associate Professor, Division of Palliative Care, Department of Medicine, University of Ottawa)

Biography:

Dr Tanuseputro completed training as a Public Health and Preventive Medicine specialist at the University of Toronto. He is an Associate Professor in the Division of Palliative Care, Department of Medicine at the University of Ottawa. He practices family medicine in the community, with a focus on palliative home visits. His research focuses on using linked big data to develop population perspectives on health care use and outcomes for the aging population. He is passionate about improving access to palliative care in community settings, including in the home. Less than 7 years since his first academic appointment, he has published over 200 papers including multiple papers in the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, BMJ, and CMAJ. He has obtained over 100 grants totaling about $200 million HKD. He holds a Clinical Research Chair in Palliative Care and Predictive Analytics.

Moderator: Dr Eric Wan (Assistant Professor, Department of Family Medicine and Primary Care, HKU)

Should you have any enquiries, please feel free to contact us by email at fmpc@hku.hk

SEMINAR SERIES ON HEALTH DATA - Dr. Peter Tanuseputro



SEMINAR SERIES ON HEALTH DATA

Seminar 1: Using data to improve care for the dying: An example of building a program of health services research using ‘big data’

Abstract:

The seminar will showcase an example of how population-based linked health administrative databases can be used to build a program of research. It will describe the evolution of a research program on palliative and end-of-life care in Ontario – the most populated province in Canada. It will walk through the natural progression of a health services research program: from descriptive to evaluative to predictive and intervention studies.

Date: 23 February 2023 (Thursday) 
Time: 5:00 - 6:30 pm
Venue: Boardroom, 1/F, Daniel & Mayce Yu Administration Wing, 21 Sassoon Road
For registration, Please click: https://hku.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_73v8Mit8EXhDA4S

Speaker: Dr. Peter Tanuseputro (Associate Professor, Division of Palliative Care, Department of Medicine, University of Ottawa)

Biography:

Dr Tanuseputro completed training as a Public Health and Preventive Medicine specialist at the University of Toronto. He is an Associate Professor in the Division of Palliative Care, Department of Medicine at the University of Ottawa. He practices family medicine in the community, with a focus on palliative home visits. His research focuses on using linked big data to develop population perspectives on health care use and outcomes for the aging population. He is passionate about improving access to palliative care in community settings, including in the home. Less than 7 years since his first academic appointment, he has published over 200 papers including multiple papers in the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, BMJ, and CMAJ. He has obtained over 100 grants totaling about $200 million HKD. He holds a Clinical Research Chair in Palliative Care and Predictive Analytics.

Moderator: Dr Eric Wan (Assistant Professor, Department of Family Medicine and Primary Care, HKU)

Should you have any enquiries, please feel free to contact us by email at fmpc@hku.hk

Professor Cindy L.K. Lam of the Department of Family Medicine & Primary Care presented a family doctor led primary care integrated chronic disease management system for Hong Kong to save lives and medical cost at the PHC Blueprint symposium on 15 January, 2023 in Hong Kong.

PowerPoint of PHC Blueprint Symposium - 20230115

A great turnout to hear Prof Cynthia Whitehead’s illuminating talk on Power Flows: Navigating power relations in the clinical learning environment! Thank you @cynthiarw29 and all our wonderful honorary FM teachers.

Wan Y.F.E., Fung S.C.C., Jiao F., Yu Y.T.E., Chin W.Y., Fong D.Y.T., Wong C.K.H., Chan K.C., Chan K.H., Kwok R.L.P. and Lam C.L.K.

Outstanding Research Output Award, LKS Faculty of Medicine, HKU

The Hong Kong College of Family Physicians

2019

Title:

Exploring the Online Learning Interactions Among Medical Students During a Self-Initiated Enrichment Year.

Period:

January 8-12, 2020

Dr Julie Chen, Dr Pauline Luk, Mr Francis Tsoi, Ms Joyce Tsang

Background:

Increasingly, medical schools are recognizing the potential of a holistic, experiential curriculum to nurture the professional development of their students. Beginning in 2018-19, the entire third year class of medical students at the LKS Faculty of Medicine embark on a mandatory, credit-bearing enrichment year of their own choosing. This novel initiative allows all students an opportunity for substantive engagement in a personal area of interest related to research, service or humanitarian work, pursuit of a higher degree, or university exchange anywhere in the world. An online virtual community of learning was developed to provide learning and social support to students and to help them link their diverse experiences with the common goal of being a doctor. This study aims to examine the nature, pattern and content of online interactions among medical students within the community of learning to identify features that support learning and personal growth.

Methods:

This was a mixed method, quantitative-qualitative study involving the most active teams in the virtual community of learning housed on the proprietary platform “Workplace”. Each team was comprised of 6-8 medical students and a faculty mentor. They worked on 3 compulsory discussion-based learning modules from September 2018-April 2019. Platform data analytics were used to determine the frequency, timing, duration, content of the interactions while social network analysis was used to establish the pattern of interactions. These quantitative data were triangulated with the written and oral feedback as well as comments compiled from focus group interviews with the faculty mentors and medical students.

Results:

Five teams were identified as the most active. The nature of their interactions were predominantly text-based and centred on social support, professional knowledge exchange, and information dissemination. Image-based messages attracted more attention and stimulated more constructive discussion. The pattern of interactions were visually represented in a social network analysis. It showed that the active teams could have single-centered interaction or multi-centred interaction with each representing different team dynamics. This was associated with effectiveness of collaboration and completion of tasks. The qualitative feedback and interviews also indicated that proactivity by even one team member, participation by the team mentor, responsiveness and social/non-academic discussions fostered a positive team dynamic and a positive online learning experience, regardless of whether the team interaction was primarily single-centred or multi-centred.

Conclusions:

Online interactions that are less structured, relate to personal interests and use multimedia appear to generate the most meaningful content and do not necessarily need to have a leader to be effective. A structured online network that adopts these features can better support learners who are geographically separated and engaged in different learning experiences.

Title:

Re-imagining Medical Education: An Enrichment Year in the Core MBBS Curriculum

Period:

10 December, 2019

Professor Chak-sing Lau (Leader), Dr. Julie Y. Chen, Professor Gilberto K.K. Leung, Dr. George L. Tipoe and Dr. Gordon T.C. Wong

https://tl.hku.hk/2019/12/2019-teaching-excellence-awards

廣東省全科專業住院醫師規範化培訓基地骨幹帶教師資培訓班 is a 4-days training course (28/11-1/12) for the General Practitioner trainers (around 50 people) in the Guangdong Province to equip them better in training the new generations of General Practitioners. Dr Emily Tsui Yee TSE was a speaker on the seminar of 课程及教案设计，远程教学 to share the family medicine teaching experience from Hong Kong.

廣東省全科醫生骨幹師資培訓中心（香港大學深圳醫院、深圳市衛生健康能力建設和繼續教育中心）

廣東省全科專業住院醫師規範化培訓基地骨幹帶教師資培訓班 is a 4-days training course (28/11-1/12) for the General Practitioner trainers (around 50 people) in the Guangdong Province to equip them better in training the new generations of General Practitioners. Dr Emily Tsui Yee TSE was one of the speakers on the Forum named 全科医学服务与教育发展研讨 to share the experience of Family Medicine development and training from Hong Kong.

廣東省全科醫生骨幹師資培訓中心（香港大學深圳醫院、深圳市衛生健康能力建設和繼續教育中心）

2019年广东省骨干师资培训课程 is a 4 days' training course (19-22 Sep) for the General Practitioner trainers (around 150 people) in the Guangdong Province to equip them better in training the new generations of General Practitioners. Dr Emily Tsui Yee TSE conducted a 1.5 hour seminar on the topic of 课程及教案设计，远程教学 on 21 Sep pm through the invitation from 深圳市能力教育中心 and the HKUSZH.

深圳市能力教育中心

Dr Emily Tsui Yee TSE was the speaker of the talk. The talk was delivered at the Family Medicine General Practice Clinic of the HKUSZH. The target audience was the new batch of general practice doctors in the Clinic as part of their training. The talk aimed at letting them to understand the rationale and importance underlying a Risk Assessment and Management Program for chronic diseases, in particular diabetes mellitus, in primary care and to motivate them to help recruiting patients into the Program during their future practice in the Department.

Family Medicine General Practice Clinic, Hong Kong University Shenzhen Hospital

Dr Emily Tsui Yee TSE was the speaker of the talk. The talk was delivered at the Family Medicine General Practice Clinic of the HKUSZH. The target audience was the existing working doctors in the Clinic as part of their professional development training. The talk aimed at letting them to understand the rationale and importance underlying a Risk Assessment and Management Program for chronic disease management and to motivate them to develop a similar Program in their working environment.

Family Medicine General Practice Clinic, Hong Kong University Shenzhen Hospital

Dr Emily Tsui Yee TSE led a group of 40 Secondary 5 students who had participated in the Faculty's Summer Broadening Program tovisit the Ap Lei Chau GOPD. 
The Patient Journey and the setting of the GOPD with specific emphasis on organisation and infection control to ensure a smooth operation in serving the large amount of patients was highlighted to the audience.

Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong

Yu Y.T.E., Yeung C.H.N., Tang H.M., Wan Y.F.E. and Lam C.L.K.

Best Poster Presentation Award 1st Prize for "Impact of lifestyle on Allostatic Load of the Hong Kong Population"

7th Asia Pacific Primary Care Research Conference

2019

Under the capacity as a member of the Young Doctor Committee of The Hong Kong College of Family Physicians, Dr Emily Tsui Yee TSE contributed as one of the speakers in the Career Talk and participated in the group discussion session to answer questions from the audience (mainly current year medical interns and final year medical students showing interests in pursuing a career in family medicine).

The Hong Kong College of Family Physicians

Yu Y.T.E., Wan Y.F.E., Tang H.M., Chan K.C., Liu S.N.K., Fong D.Y.T., Wong C.K.H., Kwok L.P., Chan K.H., Chao D.V.K., Tsui W.W.S., Liang J., Hui M.T., Luk W., Wong M. and Lam C.L.K.

The HKCFP Best Research Award 2018 for "5-year effectiveness of the multi-disciplinary Risk Assessment and Management Programme for primary care patients with hypertension (RAMP-HT) on HT-related complications and health service utilization - A population-based matched cohort study"

The Hong Kong College of Family Physicians

2019

Wrote an article about the experience at the 22nd WONCA World Conference in Seoul with the presentations of RAMP-DM which was awarded the 1st Distinguished Research Making Family Medicine Shine Award and Best Contribution to Family Medicine Award, and RAMP-HT.

The RAMP-DM is a project with the collaborative effort of public primary care providers in Hong Kong. The nurse-led risk assessment and multi-disciplinary riskguided interventions had been offered to all enrolled DM patients from the 74 general-outpatient clinics (GOPC) in Hong Kong since 2009. Significant reductions in mortality, cardiovascular events and secondary care service uses were observed among RAMP-DM enrollees compared to patients receiving usual GOPC care after 5 years.

The RAMP-HT, a parallel programme to RAMP-DM that is targeted for HK primary care patients with hypertension, was launched in 2011. Similar impacts which were fewer cardiovascular events, renal failure and deaths had been observed among RAMP-HT participants compared to usual care patients after 5 years. With reduced complications, healthcare service utilization and cost were significantly less among the RAMP-HT participants. Therefore, the RAMP-HT had been cost-saving from the healthcare providers’ perspective.

Title:

Cultivating compassion: building resilience in medical students

Period:

18-19 December, 2018

Julie Chen, Harry Wu, Venus Wong, Nicolette Ray, Abigail Wright, Barry Kerzin and Samson Wong

Context:

Stress and distress among health care professions students is not uncommon. While systemic change is needed, efforts can be also be directed towards helping students build resilience to better thrive in the current environment. The idea of compassion, which may be understood as ‘a sensitivity to suffering in ourselves and others with a desire to alleviate and prevent it’, has been a promising framework for intervention. We share our experience in implementing a programme within the medical school curriculum to help students recognize distress and to build resilience through self-awareness and self-compassion.

Interventions:

‘Culture and Caring’ is one of the five themes in the compulsory Medical Humanities programme of the HKU MBBS curriculum. It aims to build resilience through a series of workshops led by a multidisciplinary team of teachers by exploring the mind-body connection in the generation of emotions, the difficult emotions that can be experienced when encountering patient decline or death, meeting grieving family members, or facing the personal adversity that inevitably arises as part of the medical training process. Through reading, story sharing, mindfulness practice and expressive art, students learn compassion-based techniques and strategies which can be applied in their own contexts.

Observations:

All students in every cohort since 2012 have participated in these workshops, with each cohort comprised of 210-235 medical students. Their words through semi-structured written reflections, and through informal small group presentations of their body-mapping artwork, have indicated that students can articulate, appreciate and use approaches learned in the workshops to deal with difficult emotions in a self-compassionate way. Their evaluations of the workshop have indicated that they are effective and relevant to their development as a doctor.

Conclusions:

Multimodal, longitudinal compassion training helps provide strategies to handle difficult emotions in day to day life as well as in the clinical setting and is valued by students.

Topic: Causes and Management of Dyspepsia/Indigestion
「了解都市腸胃病 — 消化不良」健康講座

This is a talk to the general public in Yat Tung Estate, Tung Chung. Dr Emily Tse, under the capacity of a specialist in Family Medicine, was one of the speakers. She explained the causes and management of dyspepsia from the Western Medicine point of view. The other speaker was Dr Wendy Wong, a practising Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) doctor, giving insights from the TCM perspective. 
After the talk, the audience is expected to know more about dyspepsia, the red-flags for sinister conditions and are more empowered in taking care of their own health and the health of their family members.

Kerry Group Kuok Foundation (Hong Kong) Limited

Invited following speakers to deliver two talks on the management of dyspepsia:

1) Dr. Emily Tse, Family Doctor, explained the cause and management of dyspepsia from the view of western medicine
2) Dr. Wendy Wong, Registered Chinese Medicine Practitioner, introduced the concept of body constitution in treating dyspepsia

Organized game booth with two themes: 
1) Recipe Modification to guide the participants to modify 3 given recipes by replacing with healthier ingredients and cooking methods
2) Exploring our Family Move App to promote the usage of the App which promotes healthy lifestyle and encourages exercise at home

A doctor consultation was also held for seeking health advice on own or family health problems

During this half day training, Dr Emily Tsui Yee TSE was a co-tutor to facilitate the practise of communication skills learnt by the audience on the lecture through case scenario role-playing. The audience (mainland medical doctors in general practice) gained insights and hands-on experience in the concepts of patient communication and rapport building through the role-plays and case discussions.

The Hong Kong College of Family Physicians

Family Move, Mobile App on health promotion for the public.

KGKF-HKU Health & Health Services Initiative for Families, The University of Hong Kong. Funded by Kerry & Kuok Foundation Endowed Research Fund.

iOS: App. Android: App.

Wan Y.F.E., Fung S.C.C., Jiao F., Chin W.Y., Fong D.Y.T., Yu Y.T.E., Chan A.K.C., Chan K.H., Kwok R.L.P. and Lam C.L.K.

Distinguished Research Making Family Medicine Shine Award and Best Contribution to Family Medicine Award, for paper: “E.Y.F. Wan, C.S.C. Fung, F.F. Jiao, E.Y.T. Yu*, W.Y.Chin, D.Y.T. Fong, C.K.H. Wong, A.K.C. Chan, K.H.Y. Chan, R.L.P. Kwok, C.L.K. Lam. 5-year effectiveness of the Multi-disciplinary Risk Assessment and Management Programme for primary care patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (RAMP-DM) on DM-related complications and health service utilizations – A Population-based and Propensity-matched Cohort Study"

Diabetes Care. 2018; 41:49-59

WONCA World Conference

Seoul, Korea

2018

Liu R., Lam C.L.K., Li Z., Chen Q., Jia Y. and Wong W.C.W.

2017年度优秀论文三等奖 for paper “劉瑞紅, 林露娟, 李卓, 陳慶奇, 賈亦真, 黃志威. 綜合醫院全科門診患者自強能力及關因素調查分析. (Patient enablement and its related factors in family medicine clinic of a general hospital.)

中國全科醫師雜志 ( Clin J Gen Practice) 2017; 16 (9): 681-86, 中华医学会《中华全科医师杂志》. Seoul, Korea

2018.

Chen J.Y., Wu Y.H., Wong P.Y., Ray N.L., Wright A., Kerzin B.M. and Wong K.S.S.

Award of Merit - Free Paper Presentation (Poster)

Frontiers of Medical and Health Sciences Education Conference

2018.

Dao M.C., FU S.N., Chan C.W., Wong C.K.H., Wong Y.S., Luk W. and Yiu Y.K.,

RACGP Foundation Best Poster Award, GP18 Conference,

Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.

2018.

In this 2 hours talk, and overview of the Hong Kong Primary Care System and its development was introduced to the audience. The structure and operation of the general-outpatient services, Allied Health and Nurse Clinic, Risk Assessment and Management Program offered by the Hospital Authority Hong Kong West Cluster was also discussed. The talk aimed at opening the eyes of the newly registered trainee doctors in the HKUSZH FM Department to learn about what it is about in primary care at the very beginning of their training and to stimulate their thoughts on how the primary care in mainland could be developed.

香港大學深圳醫院家庭醫學全科部

Lam C.L.K.

The Medal of Honour

Government of the HKSAR

2018.