Bulletin Number Three 1983

its tripartite role o f service, teaching and research. Service is to be accomplished through its clinical involvement in the Prince o f Wales Hospital, which is going to take care o f most o f the bone and jo in t problems o f a population just less than a m illion. As for teaching, the Department is going to offer undergraduates a realistic view o f Orthopaedic and Traumatic Surgery and provide them w ith the basic techniques in the diagnosis and management o f bone and jo in t problems. It w ill also take a special interest in the continuing education o f young surgeons who have taken up this surgical speciality as a career. On research, the emphasis would be on the study o f locally prevalent disease conditions. These include technical frontiers like microvascular techniques in tissue and bone transplants, which the Department wishes to maintain its leading role; wound healing problems related to the local population in the form o f scar hypertrophy; the improvement on the treat­ ment o f bone and jo in t trauma and, finally, the medico-social implications and prevention o f injuries. -P.C. Leung Department of Paediatrics Along w ith other clinical academic departments, the Department o f Paediatrics w ill involve itself in three principal areas: education (o f both the undergraduate and postgraduate), clinical care and research. In undergraduate teaching our principal aims w ill be to introduce students to some o f the basic concepts about health and disease in children and to sow a few seeds that are concerned w ith attitudes towards children and their families and the complex interactions which exist between illness and social factors. The areas especially covered w ill be: growth and development, both normal and abnormal; the influence o f the perinatal period on subsequent health; basic facts and clinical presentation o f the common diseases; disorders and problems o f children (physical, behavioural, social); the importance o f preventive paediatrics; introduction to the problems o f multiple handicap. The emphasis w ill be on bedside teaching, complemented by appropriate lectures and seminars, many in a multidisciplinary setting. Students w ill be responsible, under supervision, for clerking children admitted to hospital and thereby learn the skills o f the clinical method. Major emphasis w ill be on assessing the clinical problem and the principles o f management: details o f management are more appro­ priate to the postgraduate. The need to acquire communicative skills w ill be constantly emphasized. Education being the continuum it is undergraduate teaching w ill not be undertaken to the exclusion o f postgraduate instruction. We have every intention to provide regular postgraduate clinical teaching for as many as may wish to avail themselves o f this, w ith the emphasis especially on details o f problem management. Good teaching can emanate only from a solid clinical base and to this end our Department, along w ith other government paediatric colleagues in the Prince o f Wales Hospital, have the brief to develop comprehensive in-patient facilities to give a high standard o f paediatric clinical care for the population o f Shatin and surrounding area. In time we would hope to be able to offer tertiary care in certain sub- specialities, such as childhood cancer and care o f the sick neonate, for other parts o f Hong Kong. Finally, research into problems o f children in Hong Kong w ill be enthusiastically undertaken in our Department. To start o ff the principal themes o f research w ill be in the fields o f neonatal medicine, oncology, growth and nutrition. With the gradual expansion o f the Depart­ ment other interests w ill inevitably be developed. -D.P. Davies Department of Surgery The aims o f the Department o f Surgery are to provide a top quality surgical service to the community, to foster an academic atmosphere for surgery and to develop specialist surgery. With these objectives the principles o f surgery w ill be taught to undergraduates and foundations o f postgraduate training w ill be laid. The department w ill be in various sections. Besides gastrointestinal and chest surgery, there w ill be neurosurgery, paediatric surgery, urology, head and neck surgery together w ith bums, plastic surgery and a nutritional support unit. Moreover, there w ill be an endoscopic service for the needs o f patients in the Prince o f Wales Hospital. Each section w ill be headed by a member o f the department who has expertise in that field. The work o f each section w ill be regularly audited to maintain a high standard o f care and to encourage clinical research. In this way, the foundations o f postgraduate training w ill be laid. The undergraduate teaching w ill be in two phases. In the first clinical year, students attached to the Department w ill be taught the basic principles o f surgery w ith the objective that they w ill become proficient in the recognition o f surgical problems. They w ill be adequately prepared to take on their second clinical year which w ill consist o f major speciality training. In the final year, students w ill rotate between the various surgical sections w ith the objective o f achieving a standard o f surgical manage ment comparable to that o f a surgical house officer. In summary, the Department o f Surgery intends to play an active role so that our Faculty o f Medicine w ill be recognized as an international centre o f excellence. —A.K.C. L i RECENT DEVELOPMENTS 11