HKUST reveals group of top experts to bolster plan for Hong Kong’s third medical school

Line-up includes former Hospital Authority chairman Edward Leong and Nobel Prize winner Roger Kornberg of Stanford University

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The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in Clearwater Bay. Photo: Winson Wong

Published: 2:35pm, 4 Nov 2024Updated: 5:21pm, 4 Nov 2024

A university in Hong Kong that is vying to set up the city’s third medical school has enlisted the help of a line-up of prominent experts, including a local heavyweight in medicine and politics, a former British health minister and a Nobel laureate.

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), which is currently competing with two other tertiary education institutions hoping to operate the new medical school, announced on Monday that it had formed an advisory body to offer “professional and strategic advice” to its governing council to formulate its plan.

The Council Advisory Group will be chaired by Edward Leong Che-hung, a urologist who previously held a wide range of public roles, including lawmaker representing the medical sector and chairman of the Hospital Authority. Leong previously also served as the University of Hong Kong’s council chairman.

Dr Edward Leong in 2018. He has previously served as a lawmaker representing the medical sector and chairman of the Hospital Authority. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

He will be joined by a strong line-up of overseas experts in the group. They include Professor Ara Darzi, a former British health minister and chair of surgery at Imperial College London; Professor David Ho Dai-i, a researcher in the United States best known for his invention of the cocktail therapy for HIV/Aids; Roger Kornberg, a Stanford University professor of medicine who won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 2006; and Professor Wong Tien Yin, a Singaporean ophthalmologist who heads the medical school at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

“The Council Advisory Group will offer its expertise and critical insights to the university council, which will assist in steering the direction of key development of this important project to address the challenge of shortage of doctors amid [the city’s] ageing population,” HKUST said.

Current council chairman Professor Harry Shum Heung-yeung said he was confident that Leong’s experience could help the university best position itself to operate the medical school.

“I am confident that Dr Leong’s deep understanding of Hong Kong’s public healthcare and education sector will guide our efforts in pursuing an innovative strategic position that complements the two existing medical schools,” Shum said.

HKUST president Professor Nancy Ip Yuk-yu said the group’s collective expertise would be vital in advising the university on monitoring the progress of the proposed school to meet Hong Kong’s future medical needs.