Message from the President, C.H. Leong, November 2003
The Honorable Mr Tung, Chief Executive, HK Special Administration Region, Dr E K Yeoh, Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Prof Sir David Todd, Founding President, HK Academy of Medicine, Presidents and Representatives from overseas Colleges and Academies, Honoured Guest, Fellows, Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen,
May I begin by welcoming you all to the opening ceremoy of HK Academy of Medicine��s 10th Anniversary Celebration. We are particularly honour to have Mr Tung, our Chief Executive to officiate. Your presence Mr Tung, signifies the government support and endorsement of the Academy��s role and effort in setting and vetting standards for medical and dental practise in HK for the benefit of our public.
I am grateful to the many overseas guests who has come from near and far to celebrate and witness this 10th Anniversary with us.
Today��s ceremony and the scientific programmes to come in the next 3 days could never come to fruition if not for the devoted efforts of our two co-chairmen of the organizing committee Prof Jospeh Sung, Prof Tony Chung and their team. To them and all those who worked unceasingly I convey the Academy��s sincere gratitude.
The HK Academy of Medicine is an institution established by statute charged with the role of promoting the advancement of the art and science of medicine and dentistry through setting standards for training, monitoring training programmes and vetting qualifications of post graduate medical and dental practitioners. We are committed to life long learning. This we do through organizing CME & CPD by all our Colleges.
A Fellowship of the Academy is a thus passport to specialist status and specialist registration in HK.
In 1993 under the leadership of the Founding President Prof Sir David Todd, who is in the platform today the Academy was inaugurated, witness by dignitaries from many of our overseas sister Colleges and Academies. To them and those institutions, we are most grateful. Today, 10 years down the line, in the presence again of honourable representation from these institutions we are proud to present our development.
From a humble 2,122 Fellows, from 12 Academy Colleges, today we boast 4,035 fellows. We have acquired 3 more specialty Colleges. Each Colleges today sets standards for trainings for their respective specialty, conduct both entrance and exit examinations for their trainees. Each exam is carried out with an international renown post graduate institution of the same specialty to assure the world that our products, our trainees are of equivalent standards. Needless we value and look forward to such continue collaboration.
Life long learning and life long professional development are pre requisite for quality health care services, CME / CPD programmes are therefore being promulgated and carefully scrutinized by individual Colleges. We are glad to report that the compliance rate in our cycles so far has been over 95%.
Through the kindness of the HK SAR Government, the Academy has been offered a sizeable grant to develop a website for on line studies and on line CME point accreditations programme This system, which we call the Membership Learning and Management System (MLMS), can and has also hyperlink with other post graduate health care institutions. We are in the process of discussing with our sister organizations, on how we can further collaborate. They are welcoming to join us as the MLMS could well be an international network center for global medical education purposes.
Working from a few rooms allocated to us by the Hospital Authority in 1993, the Academy has now our own premise. We are indeed grateful to the HK Jockey Club and many kind donors for giving us our own hom, where we stand today, and the HKSAR Government for the land grant.
Now that both the hardware and software are in place, what directions should the Academy be looking into.
The exponential growth in medical knowledge and the consequent development of many specialties, a mass infusion of new technology and the concurrent increase in diagnostic and therapeutic capabilities has radically impacted the way medicine and dentistry is practiced. This is likely to gain even greater momentum in the future. There is nothing to stop the rapid growth of the science of medicine and dentistry. How the professions respond to the growth and its ramifications will determine the quality of care we deliver to our patients. The Academy is committed to take up the task to drive the profession, dental and medical, to apply these growing knowledge in our practices.
Economic setback and uncertainty have no doubt put pressure on training programmes and trainees development world wide. HK is no exception. Yet thus Academy will pledge to provide the highest training standard that our society demands and deserves.
Mr Tung, Ladies and Gentlemen, the Academy was not built in a day. It was built to satisfy the yean on the part of the medical and dental professions that there should be legally structured postgraduate specialist vocational training. It was built to assure that there will be a benchmark for standards of specialist practise in HK. It was built to ensure that professional autonomy in professional practise will prevail irrespective of politics. More importantly it was built to ensure that the public will be served with the highest standards that they expect.
Armed with these principles, the Academy will match on into the next decade and beyond.
May I conclude by welcoming you all to our 10th Anniversary Celebration. For our overseas visitors, I do hope that you will take time out of your Academy schedule to sample the many delights that HK can offer.
C.H. Leong
President