Dr. Chau Ka Foon

2009.4.26

The Hong Kong Society of Transplantation organised the 13th Annual Scientific Meeting on 6 April 2008 at the Island Shangri-La Hotel.  Two eminent overseas speakers were invited including Professor Jeremy Chapman, Present Elect of the Transplantation Society and Clinical Professor of University of Sydney, Australia and Professor Akinlolu Ojo from University of Michigan, USA. The debate on financial incentives for organ donation by the two speakers was especially stimulating. Five local experts in transplantation presented the local experiences.   The themes included Lung Transplant in HK, Strategies for unrelated haematopoietic stem cells, Barriers to organ donation in HK, Post kidney transplant diabetes and metabolic complications after liver transplantation. Dr. KF Chau reported on the 16th World Transplant Games in Thailand.  The meeting was a successful one and was attended by 128 attendants including 21 doctors from China.

Scientific Seminars:

Six scientific meetings were held in 2008-09: 

3rd Chinese Transplant Games, Shanghai (13-16 June 2008):

Dr. KF Chau led the Hong Kong team to participate in the 3rd Chinese Transplant Games held at Shanghai in June 2008. The team consisted of 50 members, including 31 transplant patients, 2 living donors, 2 deceased donor families, 6 medical staff and 2 volunteers and 7 accompanying persons. Eleven patients had received renal, 11 liver, 6 heart, 1 lung and 2 liver-renal transplant. They participated in 64 events including track and field, swimming, badminton and table tennis. They obtained 24 medals including 13 gold, 5 silver and 6 bronze medals. The medical staff also visited Zhongshan Hospital Fudan University during the period. Press conferences were held before and after the Games and attracted intensive media attention and the event was widely reported thro’ TV, radio and newspapers. The event is co-organized by Hong Kong Transplant Sports Association. Thanks very much to the hard work of Drs. YW Ho and Stanley Lo, Ms Cora Cheung, the physiotherapist, Ms Angela Wong, the transplant co-ordinator and Ms Yu Suk Wah, the former heart transplant co-ordinator who rendered the event the very success.

World’s Biggest Walk / Acknowledgement Ceremony to Donor Families (25 Oct 2008):

This first acknowledgement ceremony to the deceased donor families in Hong Kong was held at Olympic Square, Hong Kong Park as the highlight of the 1st World’s Biggest Walk which was initiated by the World’s Biggest Walk Foundation to arouse the awareness of the pubic on organ donation. The Walk was done simultaneously in 109 cities all over the world. The Ceremony and the Walk was attended by ~900 persons including ~260 from 124 donor families and ~400 from 19 patient support groups/organizations. Drs. York Chow, Leung Ka Lau and Leong Che Hung were the guest of honour. Prizes to winners of the essay competition in primary schools and e-card design competition in secondary schools were presented. The theme song ‘捐贈愛’ was composed by 高皓正for the event. The program was completed by a short Walk to the exit of the HK Park. The activity was co-organized by HA, DH, HKSN, HKKF, HKMA and HK Health Link. A series of publicity including NOW TV 杏林在線, RTHK 精靈一點 and special articles in various newspapers.

Organ Donation Promotion:

1.   Apart from the publicity related to the Chinese Transplant Games and the World’s Biggest Walk, we were active in promoting organ donation thro’ various media:

2.   Starting from April 2009, HKST will have a special column at Sing Tao News for sharing by patients, donors and medical staff on every Wednesday for preliminarily three months.

3.   HKST was invited into the Department of Health Organ Donation Working Group to help promoting organ donation since February 2009.

Activities to support other transplant related organizations:

Relationship with other professional organizations:

The Transplantation Society

Dr. KL Tong represented HKST to attend the TTS meeting in Istanbul in April 2008. The Istanbul Declaration was agreed by TTS country representatives and supported by HKST.

The Hong Kong Society of Nephrology

HKSN will bid for organization of the World Congress of Nephrology in Hong Kong in 2013. HKST supports its bidding.

HKST Newsletter

The Society Newsletters were published twice per year and were distributed to all members, transplant units and staff, patient support groups and transplant related organizations. Thanks for the hard effort of Dr. Cindy Choy and MK Yiu.

HKST web site (www.hkst.org)

The web site is under great modification. Thanks for the hard work of Ms YF Tong for maintaining the web.

Finally, I wish to express my deep appreciation to Dr. KL Tong and all the past presidents, council members and office bearers especially Drs. Philip Li, Cindy Choy and CK Li for their advice and unfailing support to the Hong Kong Society of Transplantation.