CO129-594-1 Rehabilitation of Hong Kong University. For extracted photographs see CN 3-45- Advisory Committee report 29-3-1946 - 3-7-1946 — Page 106

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Faculty of Medicine.

The College of Medioine existed, as a chartered institution, prior to the establishment of the University. It has established a high repu- tation, and rising standards of education have been maintained throughout its history. Its graduates are in general and specialist practice in Hong Kong, Onina, Malaya and the Dutch East Indies. Its qualification is recognised by the General Medical Council as entitling to registration in Great Britain.

In the past the curriculum has conformed very largely to that found in medical schools in the British Isles. With the increased emphasis placed in recent times on prevention of disease, the Committee feel that some modification should be made in the curriculum of the Hong Kong School to adjust its teaching in this respect the better to meet the pressing medical needs in the Far East. The Medical School in the past has had for the pre-medical and pre-clinical periods, whole-time profess- ors and lecturers, but in the three clinical years, it has been a recognised practice for the professors and lecturers in clinical subjects also to act as government consultants. The Professor of Pathology, also, has had duties in connection with the Queen Mary (Government) Hospital, which is the chief teaching hospital for University students. In order to achieve a close integration of teaching and practice in public health, it was arranged shortly before the war for the Deputy Director of the Medical Services of the Hong Kong Government to be ex-officio the Professor of Public Health in the University. The Committee recommend the continuance of the arrangement for the clinical and pathological posts, but the teaching of preventive medicine has now become so important a part of the medical curriculum, embracing as it does teaching in social medicine andpublic health, that the Committee recommend the supersession of the previous arrangement by the formation of a University Department of Social Medicine and Public Health, under a full-time Head, who would be a professor in the University. This Department should expand, as soon as it conveniently can, to include a post-graduate course for a diploma in Social Medicine and Public Health, corresponding to the D.P.H. course in Great Britian. It would then require two sub- sections:- pne for epidemiology and one for the practical application uI the results of nutritional studies.

The Committee is fully aware of the difficulties which may arise in the appointment of professors who, at the same time, hold posts in government or other teaching hospitals. They suggest, for the considera- tion of the University, the possibility of the establishment of a joint Appointements Board to overcome this difficulty.

It is now generally recognised that in order to maintain freshness of ourlook and competence in teaching, it is essential that the staff in the medical school should have adequate opportunities to undertake research, either individually, or as part of a team. The Committee recommend that the University should encourage, by the careful selection of its professors, the establishment in all departments in the Medical School of a reputation for original research work. A reputation of this type would make the recruitment of first-class staff easier.

One of the weaknesses in the medical school in the past has been that the teaching of physiological chemistry side of the Department of Physiology has not been as extensive as is now necessary with the great developments in bio-chemistry. This will be remedied by the establish- ment of a separate Department of Bio-Chemistry in the Faculty of Science which the Committee proposes and should release the staff of the Physiological Department for teaching and research in experimental physiology.

There was a difference of opinion in the Committee about the place of pharmacology in the curriculum. A scientific study of the subject

would