Message from the President at the 1998 Annual General Meeting on December 1998. The President of the Academy, Dr David Fang, gave an address at the 1998 Annual General Meeting on 18 December 1998, in the Grand Hall of the new Academy building. He praised all those involved in the new building's planning and financing, and emphasised the role of the Academy in promoting medical information technology in the next millenium. " It is one year since our last AGM in Shatin and, as promised, we have moved into these fine premises in which we can hold all meetings up to a capacity of 1000. I hope you will agree with most visitors who have been here, that we at least rival if not surpass the international standard for institutions of similar stature. We owe much to the Government and a great many benefactors who so readily responded to our appeal for support. The building and different sections inside it bear the names of these generous donors. There are also numerous benefactors who either wanted no special acknowledgement or chose to remain anonymous. To them we owe a special debt of sincere gratitude. Most of all, this building- could not have been completed and so far within budget without the concerted efforts of our profession, the Academy Council, and the all-important Building committee. The Committee was originally chaired by Prof SH Lee and subsequently co-chaired with chairperson of the Finance Committee, Mrs (Dr) Alice Lam. Tonight, the Academy honours the invaluable contributions of Mrs Lam, who, not being a member of the Academy, did dedicate her wealth of experience, various resources, and staunch decisive leadership to this testy project so as to ensure its successful completion. Although we cannot give an award to all the other members of the Building Committee, I must especially acknowledge the roles of the two honorary advisors, Mr David Lee and Mrs Cecilia Lee, whose professional input, among other contributions, greatly facilitated effective management of the project. Tonight we also take the opportunity to present souvenirs to past Council members, in appreciation of their, effort, and expertise that gave us all the progress and achievements we have realized. As we approach the next millennium, the Academy must support her Fellows to harvest the rich rewards of medical information technology (MIT). From the present vantage point, it is apparent that MIT will revolutionize the way we store, access, and share information-that is, if it has not already done so. I used the words 'vantage point' because we are built to harness MIT, through a trunking of fibre optics and gigaspeed cables. Currently, the control room on the 7th floor houses three high-speed PC servers, although it may be necessary to acquire large mainframe computers in the long run. For the near future, when necessary, it should be more economical to rely on rented storage capacity from such providers as Hongkong Telecom. One early application of our existing, capacity is to set up an International Database on Training Posts and CME. The agreement to establish this network was reached at a business meeting, attended by 28 Academy and College Presidents during the recent International Congress. The countries or regions represented include Australia, New Zealand, Canada, China, the HKSAR, Ireland, Singapore, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. The aim is two-fold: firstly, to share information on available training posts in all specialties for exchange programmes and secondly, to provide a calendar of accredited CME meetings at a glance, coupled with a central clearing house for certification. That latter function should reduce clerical work and provide an instantaneous CME status update to every College and Fellow at any time. Clinical guidelines and CME on demand are but other examples of services that Fellows may expect the Academy to provide. The resources of any one or even several institutions will not be sufficient to satisfy demand. Eventually, we will need an Intentional Panel to ensure a proper pooling of resources and expertise. That too requires close coordination and cooperation between nations. The Academy should maintain a major role in guiding that multinational effort. Whereas we will fully safeguard privacy and confidentiality under the law, our intentions are entirely in keeping with Government policy to develop both advanced technology and quality education. There is therefore good reason to believe that we will obtain the necessary funding, for hardware, initial manpower, and software development. Finally, it is my duty to congratulate all those who will be receiving their Academy Fellowship tonight. The Academy celebrates your achievement, and we look forward to serving you while receiving your support to further improve the standards of medical practice for the community. --- Thank you."     Dr David Fang President