Dr. Stanley Ho Medical Development Foundation Symposium 2019
- admin
- 2018-12-14
- Foundation’s News, Information and Activities, Medical Symposium, News
Dr. Stanley Ho Medical Development Foundation Symposium 2019
The 2019 Medical Symposium co-organized by the Dr. Stanley Ho Development Foundation and the Chinese University of Hong Kong was held on 19th and 20th January 2019 at the New Orient Landmark. The organizers invited a number of world-class medical professors and clinical experts from Hong Kong and Taiwan to give talks on stroke & interventional neurology, nasopharyngeal cancer screening using plasma EBV DNA, etc., all of which are specifically selected to meet the concerns of Macau citizens.
The opening ceremony was held on the first day of the Symposium at the headquarters of the Foundation located on 9th Floor ICBC Tower of the Macau Landmark. The officiating guests include:
- Patrick Huen, Vice-Chairman of the Board of Trustees and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Foundation;
- Justin Wu, Chief Operating Officer of CUHK Medical Centre;
- Peter Lam, Chair of the University Council of the University of Macau;
- Cheang Kun Wai, Member of the Administrative Committee of the Macau Science and Technology Development Fund; and
- Kuok Cheong U, Director of the Conde S. Januario Hospital.
In addition, renowned medical doctors from Shih Chen University, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hospital Conde S. Januario, Kiang Wu Hospital and Macau University of Science and Technology were also invited as guest moderators of the Symposium.
In the opening speech, Mr. Patrick Huen reiterates the objective of the Foundation, which is to elevate the healthcare standard of Macau. Since 2005, the Foundation has put tremendous effort in promoting the idea of having a medical school in Macau. Mr. Huen is pleased to see the first Bachelor of Medicine programme would soon be launched in Macau University of Science and Technology, and people in Macau will be able to get quality medical treatment locally in the future.
The Foundation also believes science and technology applications are utmost important for the future of Macau; and thus it tries very hard in applying computer technology to enhance information sharing among medical practitioners. With the help of Prof. Helen Meng and her team at the Stanley Ho Big Data Decision Analytics Research Centre, the Foundation has successfully launched a video indexing system known as BDDAX on the Foundation’s website. The system enables its users to search the topics that they would like to see from more than 100 video clips of medical talks presented at the Medical Symposium from 2007 to 2018. Mr. Huen emphasizes that this system is just the first step. His ultimate target is to make the Foundation’s website a comprehensive medical information platform for communication and exchange with overseas experts.
The collaboration of the 9 + 2 cities in the Greater Bay Area will give medical researchers in Macau an unprecedented opportunity to work closer with other researchers in the area. Mr. Huen reckons that different institutions and organizations should share their resources and work towards the common objective of elevating the quality and service standards of Macau. For example, Macau Science and Technology Development Fund has sponsored a lot of local researches and their results should be made known to the public for further development. Via the e-learning and sharing platforms, researchers could show what they have discovered to their peers in the Greater Bay Area and even overseas so that the effort of the Macau SAR Government in promoting the collaboration would be realized.
Mr. Huen also mentions specifically about the Foundation’s initiatives to turn Macau into an elderly friendly city. Back in 2011, the Foundation helped to establish the Macau Alzheimer’s Disease Association or MADA. With help from Dr. David Dai, Chairman of Hong Kong Alzheimer’s Disease Association, MADA became a regular member of the Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI) along with other 93 member associations across the world in 2013. MADA has been actively supporting the Macau SAR Government to build a dementia friendly community in Macau. Going forward, the Foundation aims to enlist the help of Prof. Timothy Kwok, Director of CUHK Jockey Club Centre for Osteoporosis Care and Control, in response to the increasing healthcare needs of local elderly.
Finally, Mr. Huen announces that Prof. Joseph JY Sung has accepted his invitation to be the Chief Scientific Advisor of the Foundation. He will become the ambassador of the Foundation, and help the Foundation to extend its reach to other cities in the Greater Bay Area and overseas.
More than 600 registrants, mostly local doctors and nurses, have enrolled in the two-day Medical Symposium this year. The talks were also broadcasted live via the YouTube channel of the Medical Foundation.
