Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) announced on Monday that it will establish a medical research institute focusing on medical devices, diagnosis, vaccines, traditional Chinese medicine and the transformation of frontier healthcare technologies.
The announcement follows the approval of the university's draft proposal to establish Hong Kong's third medical school by its preparatory committee, which consists of both university management and external consultants.
During a media briefing on Monday, HKBU President Alexander Wai Ping-kong said the planned Frontier Translational Medical Research Institute would serve as a cutting-edge hub for medical science and healthcare advancements.
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The institute will be co-chaired by Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine Michael Houghton, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Macau University of Science and Technology Manson Fok Man-sun, and Jason Lau Yiu-nam, adjunct senior investigator of HKBU.
Wai emphasized that the institute will drive medical innovation and prepare global society for future health challenges such as infectious and non-infectious diseases, population aging, and pandemic prevention, which is also aligned with the vision of the new medical school the university intends to build.
Two of the three co-founders of the new institute, Fok and Houghton, also play critical roles in the two arms HKBU formed to promote its goal of establishing the city’s third medical school - the Preparatory Committee and Expert Advisory Committee.
Last year, the Hong Kong government revealed its vision to build a third medical school to nurture more doctors, requiring government-funded universities to submit proposals by Mar 17.
The city’s current two medical schools are managed by the University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Apart from HKBU, Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, have also expressed intentions to be homes of the third medical school.
Wai said the university’s draft proposal for the establishment of Hong Kong's third medical school was unanimously approved during a meeting convened by the Preparatory Committee and Expert Advisory Committee.
With minor changes, including adjustments to some graphics, the proposal will be submitted to the government before the deadline, noted Wai.
He said that HKBU had made significant progress in meeting the ten key parameters set by the government and could leverage its strength in traditional Chinese medicine to be competitive.
Fok, co-chairman of the Preparatory Committee, stressed that the university’s bid was “not a bandwagon move”, citing its decades of expertise in traditional Chinese medicine and the upcoming opening of Hong Kong's first traditional Chinese medicine hospital by the end of the year.
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Fok said that establishing a new medical school would allow HKBU to pioneer integrated Chinese-Western medicine education, leveraging the university's advantages.
HKBU’s proposed new medical school will also cooperate with institutions in other cities of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA). For example, some teaching sessions will be conducted in hospitals in Greater Bay Area mainland cities, Fok said.
He also highlighted that the curriculum of the new medical school would primarily emphasize small-class teaching, focusing on communication between doctors and patients.
Contact the writer at stephyzhang@chinadailyhk.com
