Bulletin Number Three 1983

antibacterial and antiviral drugs has added to the confusion. In the last few years many ‘new' infections had been recognized, including Legionnaires disease, C a m p y lo b a c te r a n d ro ta v iru s e n te ritis , a n a e ro b ic sepsis and a wide variety o f opportunistic infections. The availability o f cheap computers and recent develop ments in fundamental Microbiology (including the manipulation o f bacterial DNA, the production o f monoclonal antibodies and the chemical analysis o f bacterial cells and their metabolic products) are certain to have far-reaching effects on the practice o f Clinical Microbiology in the next decade. The Department o fMicrobiology w ill be actively involved in these new developments and their applica tion to clinical diagnosis and therapy. Teaching w ill focus on the relevance and application o fMicrobiology to clinical practice w ithin Hong Kong. The Department does not believe that Microbiology should be lim ited to the laboratory bench, but w ill actively encourage clinical liaison and collaboration w ith other units and departments w ithin the hospital and the University. With this in mind, the Department o f Microbiology has already begun to develop collaborative research projects w ith the Departments o f Surgery, Paediatrics and Chemistry, and is actively involved w ith the development o f policies for the control o f infection and the use o f antibiotics w ithin the Prince o f Wales Hospital. -G .L . French Department of Morbid Anatomy I have set my goal to build a Department o f Morbid Anatomy (Anatomical Pathology) which w ill function as a comprehensive unit for: (1) diagnostic pathology — surgical pathology, autopsy, cytopathology and hematopathology, (2) research on the pathology o f disease —experimental and clinical, and (3) education — teaching o f medical students. In itia l efforts on curriculum planning, collection o f teaching material, acquisition o f equipment, and staff recruitment w ill be directed towards this goal. To provide a transition between basic science and clinical medicine, courses in Pathology w ill be designed to contain both practical information and fundamental insights into the mechanisms and mani festations o f disease. To this end, the use o f surgical pathology and postmortem materials as primary teaching aids in the laboratory w ill be emphasized. In addition to regular course work, students w ill be encouraged to jo in the ongoing research o f the Department or to make independent preliminary inquiries into topics o f medicine o f interest to them. My plans for the future include the introduction o f programmes for graduate students, postgraduate training in Pathology, and continuing medical education for pathologists and physicians o f other specialities. Joint research projects w ith other depart­ ments o f the University and w ith other institutions in Hong Kong and abroad w ill also be developed. - J .C .K . Lee Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology In joining the Faculty o f Medicine o f this University, I wish to use the opportunity to develop my interests in clinical service, teaching, and research. It is hoped that the clinical unit w ill develop multidisciplinary diagnostic andmanagement facilities, taking advantage o f the close liaison between specialities in the university environment. Such a unit w ill ， in addition to serving the needs o f the local community, provide supportive facilities for medical and paramedical colleagues. It is also hoped that both undergraduate and postgraduate education w ill develop. Attempts w ill be made to develop an innovative undergraduate curri­ culum, emphasizing the problem-solving approach and interdisciplinary teaching. Postgraduate teaching w ill go beyond the training o f specialists to fu lfil the service needs o f the community, to encourage and support those medical colleagues who desire to develop special skills or carry out research. Finally ， it is hoped that the multidisciplinary approach o f the faculty w ill enable collaboration betweeen the clinical and laboratory orientated depart­ ments in research. Within the speciality, however, research w ill be directed towards the solving o f clinical and educational problems. Long-term clinical and epidemiological audits w ill be established to enable the assessment o f clinical needs ， and research activities w ill be integrated w ith patient care to enable valid assessment o f diagnostic and treatment facilities. Repeated assessment o f the effectiveness o f under­ graduate teaching w ill also be carried out to enable continuous development and improvement o f the curriculum. -A . Chang Department of Orthopaedic and Traumatic Surgery The continuous industrialization in Hong Kong has brought more accidents and traumas to the local population and this has been well reflected in the ever- rising need for the treatment o f limb injuries and bone fractures in the general hospitals. In the Princess Margaret Hospital, for instance, the admissions in the year o f 1979 included 1,875 cases o f hand injuries and 1,530 cases o f bone fractures. On the other hand, urbanization and the general increase in life expectancy have been responsible for the higher incidences o f locomotor (i.e. muscular, bone and joints) diseases and ailments. Facing such a challenge, the Department o f Orthopaedic and Traumatic Surgery is ready to fu lfil 10 RECENT DEVE LOPM ENTS