Volume 21 Number 4 • Dec 11/Jan 12, Editorial by Dr David CL Lam (January, 2012)
On behalf of the Editorial Board, may I wish you and your family very good fortune and health in the New Year of Dragon. It has been one year into my Editorship and I would like to take this great opportunity to thank all the Editorial Board Members and all the authors in the different thematic issues for their unfailing support.
In this issue, we have summarized the achievement and activities of the three respiratory societies over the past one year for the celebration of the 25th /15th Anniversary of the HKTS /HKLF. The success of these stories and activities were crystallization of the con-joint efforts among different office bearers and members of the three respiratory societies. In contrast to the topical review in the previous thematic issues, I hope the theme of the Anniversary events with inclusion of many different colourful pictures will serve as a mini-album to keep all these achievement and activities in good memories, to reflect the bright future of the respiratory communities and to be incentives for us to work further on with such goal.
Volume 21, Number 3, Sep/Oct 2011, Editorial by David CL Lam (October, 2011)
It was heart-breaking for me to report to you in this issue the lost of Dr CHAN Yuk Choi. With his great contribution and dedication, the Hong Kong Thoracic Society and the Hong Kong Lung Foundation have taken their shapes today.
It was a sad moment for the respiratory community.
We would continue with our thematic issue, this time on Lung Cancer
Volume 21, Number 2, August 2011, Editorial by David CL Lam (July 2011)
It was March 2011, when we were planning for this issue, that the radiation leakage happened in Japan and have caught the attention of the whole world. The Editorial Board has thus adopted this theme of ‘Occupational and Environmental Impacts on Respiratory Health’. Though the incidence is settling over there in Japan, we are yet to experience the long term impact. The theme of this issue would hopefully keep members abreast of the latest knowledge and practice in this area.
The Editorial Board was pleased to receive the warm and encouraging message with the release of our first issue with a new cover. We hope to keep going with the momentum and striving for better ones to come. Your advice and comments are always appreciated.
Volume 21, Number 1, April 2011, Editorial by Dr David CL Lam
It was my great pleasure to serve you through this Editorship of the Joint Newsletter of the three thoracic societies in Hong Kong. Having inherited a wealth of experience and resourceful board members, I would like to welcome new Editorial Board members.
Besides an attempt to broaden our coverage with more contributions from Nursing and Allied Health colleagues, we have bravely introduced the concept of ‘Theme issues’. Setting thematic issues would hopefully help us focused on important topics of interest to the respiratory medicine community. However, the theme of an issue should not be an exclusive one and contributions from members on other respiratory topics will also be considered.
This is the very first issue from this term of Editorial Board and further suggestions and contributions from members are most welcomed and we would certainly try our best to make this Joint Newsletter the way you like.
Happy readings,
David CL Lam
Volume 20 Number 4 • Dec 10/Jan 11; Editorial by Dr Johnny Chan
The 3 Editors: Dr. David Lam (left), Dr. Johnny Chan (middle), Dr Arthur Lau (right)
This issue has covered a lot of events that have occurred in the past few months. These include the Autumn Respiratory Seminar, the Certificate Respiratory Courses for Nurses, Allied Health Professionals and Family Physicians, the World Spirometry Day and various other activities related to the Year of the Lung. These successful events have not only propagated knowledge of Respiratory Medicine to the health care sector, but have also helped to disseminate the importance of Lung Health to the general public. Apart from the meticulous planning and devoted contributions by the various Society leaders, the success of these events has also been the result of enthusiastic participation of our members. That has again vividly demonstrated our remarkable cohesiveness within our local Respiratory circle, something which we still need to rely on to excel ourselves in the future.
As this would be my last issue as the Chief Editor, I would take this opportunity to offer my sincere thanks to the whole Editorial Board and all the contributors to these past issues for your unfailing support to the Newsletter.
Volume 20, No. 3, Sep/Oct 2010; Editorial by Dr Johnny Chan
While the recent H1N1 influenza pandemic had not brought about a major disaster in Hong Kong, the use of ECMO in those patients in respiratory failure had revived its utilization in critically ill patients. Of course this has also been supported by technological advances and recently emerged medical evidence. In this issue, our local critical care experts in PYNEH have shared with us their ECMO experience in their article inside the “Critical Care Corner”. On the other hand, the potential benefit of Qigong in pulmonary rehabilitation is the topic of an interesting article in the Allied Health Column. Similar to Tai Chi, more and more studies have suggested a possible role of these practices in a number of areas of medicine, although as suggested by the authors of the article, more evidence would be necessary to substantiate their specific therapeutic value, in contrast to the other exercise or rehabilitative modalities.
Quite a number of events and activities would be occurring in Hong Kong in the final quarter of 2010, including the Health Exhibitions held in association with HKU Medical Society, World Spirometry Day in association with the paediatric respirologists and the Hong Kong Asthma Society, as well as our coming Autumn Respiratory Seminar. Do watch out for the timing of such events and give your big support and participation, in order to bring about the spirit and theme of this year, the Year of the Lung.
Volume 20, No. 2, Jun/Jul 2010; Editorial by Dr Johnny Chan
In this issue, we featured an article written by Dr. Fanny Ko on the recent FDA recommendations on the use of long-acting beta agonists (LABA) in the management of asthma and the related controversies. That also highlighted some of the discussions during the Asthma Forum held in the Annual Scientific Meeting earlier this year, which are important in our daily management of asthma patients. On the other hand, a group of nursing colleagues have also written on their valuable experience obtained after an overseas corporate scholarship program in the United Kingdom earlier this year. They illustrated some differences in the respiratory service delivery models between Hong Kong and the United Kingdom, including a more community-based approach in the service provisions in the latter.
While I am preparing this issue in mid June 2010, many things and events are going on in fully swing around us (Electoral Reforms in Hong Kong, PDA and HKMA elections, coming AIM and Respiratory annual/exit examinations, Year of the Lung, NBA finals, World Cup 2010…). While I am not sure which of these events would take up most of your time, some of our Editorial Board members, under the leadership of Dr. Arthur Lau, are working hard to prepare an archive of the previous issues of Newsletter so that they can be accessed in our Webpage in the future. Apart from the wealth of knowledge that is contained inside, there would also be a lot of interesting historical moments and photos that would otherwise be missed by the younger generation. My sincere thanks to all the colleagues involved.
Volume 20, No. 1, Mar/Apr 2010; Dr Johnny Chan
In this issue, we reported the Annual Scientific Meeting 2010 and the participation of respiratory physicians in the Standard Charter Marathon 2010, the two starting events which sparked off a whole series of activities for the “Year of the Lung 2010” in Hong Kong. Coming activities would also include health exhibition, publication of a respiratory booklet, media contacts, etc. If you are interested to know more about the Year of the Lung, including its goals and objectives, related local and international activities, you are encouraged to go to the our local website www.hkresp.com or the official website of the Year of the Lung at the address www.yearofthelung.org. As practitioners of respiratory medicine, we should make good and meaningful use of the year to increase the awareness of lung health in our own community.
Astute readers might have noticed that we have gone “back to the future” in the past issue, since the issue number on the cover was misprinted as “volume 20, no. 4 , Dec 10/11”, instead of “volume 19, no.4, Dec 09/Jan10”. While the error might reflect my eagerness and impatience to get to my last issue, I would like to offer my sincere apologies. Apart from the acknowledgments in this editorial and on the back page of this issue, amendments would also be furnished in our respiratory webpage. If we are able to archive our past issues of Newsletter in our webpage in the future (something that we are working on), such technical errors might be more easily amended and the archived versions can serve as a standard to be referred to. Hopefully such amendments and references would not be required too often!
Volume 19, No.4, Dec 09/10; Dr Johnny Chan
The past few months have been exciting for local respiratory healthcare professionals, not only because of the large international conferences by the various Respiratory Societies such as ERS, ACCP and APSR during this period, but also for the numerous activities organized in Hong Kong under the auspices of the local Respiratory Societies including the Pulmonary Physiology Course (in association with ANZSRS /APSR), the Autumn Respiratory Seminar and the other two respiratory courses. This issue would try to capture some snapshots of these events. On the other hand, as a new staging system for lung cancer has been proposed earlier this year, we have invited our past Chief Editor and a prominent local expert of this field, Dr. James Ho, to highlight us some of the key areas of note with the introduction of this new system in his feature article.
We have two articles in the area of Interventional Pulmonology in this issue: one reporting PMH’s experience in the use of endobronchial valves in treating persistent air leaks from a clinical meeting and the other on QEH’s humble practice of performing medical pleuroscopy in the Interventional Corner. While there are a lot of exciting new developments in this relatively new area, sharing of experience and information in different platforms would definitely be invaluable.
Last but not the least, our Presidents would like to remind us that the year 2010 has been declared as the Year of the Lung. As practitioners in the Respiratory circle, the coming year is expected to be a busy and yet exciting one for us.
This is the last 2009 issue of the Newsletter and on behalf of the Editorial Board, I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Vol 20, Number 3, Sep/Oct 2009; Dr Johnny Chan
At the time of preparation of this issue of Newsletter, the novel pandemic 2009 H1N1 Influenza / Human Swine Influenza (HSI) infection is still rampant in Hong Kong and many other parts of the world. Although most of the cases are mild, critically ill and HSI-related deaths have been increasingly reported. This issue would highlight a summary of an ad-hoc clinical meeting held in July, where local respiratory physicians gathered and shared our preliminary experience in managing the serious HSI cases in Hong Kong. The column of “Respiratory Update” would also feature some of the important articles published in these few months on this novel viral infection, in addition to our usual archive of international and local respiratory publications.
In the past several months, a group of energetic pulmonologists, under the joint leadership of Drs. Arthur Lau (our Deputy Editor) and HY Lo (HKTS Council Member), have contributed enormous amount of effort to revamp our website. The new website, being named “Hong Kong Respiratory Medicine” at present, can be accessed at www.hkresp.com. This would not only be the entrance to the websites of Hong Kong Thoracic Society and ACCP (HK & Macau Chapter) but also the gateway to a wealth of Respiratory knowledge. As it is still at its infancy stage with more upcoming improvement work being necessary in both its contents and design, we would encourage you all to visit the website and forward your suggestions and comments about the webpage to Dr. Arthur Lau via his email
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
. As the past and future issues of this Newsletter would also be archived there, and some of our Editorial Board members are also working closely with the website development, you can also forward your valuable suggestions to me.
Volume 19, Number 2, Jun/Jul 2009
This issue of Joint Newsletter featured the past Annual Scientific Meeting that was successfully held in March, as well as the messages from our new Presidents, who would lead the new cabinets in the coming 2 years.
Volume 18 Number 4 • Dec08/Jan 09
This article is going to be the last issue under my editorial board and we continue to include a wide variety of information. Apart from the usual columns of Clinical Meeting Summary, Practical Corner and Book Review Column, the successfully held “10th Beijing-Hong Kong Exchange – An Update of Respiratory Medicine” and the press conference and release of the “Burden of Lung Disease” project are also reported in detail in this periodical.
The two chest societies with the support from the Hong Kong Lung Foundation will jointly hold their Annual Scientific Meeting 2009 on March 15 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. Similar to all previous meetings, a rich variety of practical and up-to-date topics are included. Further details will be sent to you in due course. We look forward to seeing you participating in this excellent learning activity of the societies.
Last but not least, may I take this opportunity to express my heartfelt thanks to my editorial board members for their great support and effort over the past two years. I would also like to wish the new editorial board all the success in their coming Newsletters. Finally I would like to thank you all for your support to our Newsletter and wish you a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous Year of the Ox.
Volume 18 Number 3 • Sep/Oct 08
In this issue of newsletter, we have included our regular reports on the Clinical Meeting Summaries, expert reviews in the Practical Corner and introduction of new books in the Book Column. In the latest Fellowship examination of Respiratory Board held in June, I am glad to tell you that six colleagues have passed and become fellows of our field. Abstracts of their dissertations are enclosed for your kind perusal.
I would like to further update the progress of the coming Autumn Respiratory Seminar. This one and a half day conference is going to be held in the Convention and Exhibition Centre on 8th and 9th of November. The Society takes her first time to jointly organize the conference with the Hong Kong Medical Association and the Chinese Medical Association. Full detail of programme is enclosed herewith for your kind reference. With such a wide variety of interesting and practical topics and a great panel consisting of both overseas and local experts, you will certainly gain a lot of up-to-date scientific information in respiratory medicine in this event. We look forward to meeting you in this event.
Volume 18 Number 2 • Jun/Jul 08
First of all, we are very pleased indeed to take this opportunity to congratulate our two highly respectable seniors namely Professor Wah-kit Lam who has been conferred the Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow and Professor Moir Chan-Yeung who has been awarded the Distinguished Achievement Awards 2008 of the American Thoracic Society. Full information and the many contributions of Prof Lam and Prof Chan-Yeung to the Respiratory field are detailed in this issue.
Similar to the past, we have included our usual sessions of Clinical Meeting Summaries, the Practical Corner and Book Review Column. An asthma symposium and a “Letter to the Editor” to a local press are also reported in this issue.
Finally, I would like to update the progress of the coming Autumn Respiratory Seminar. The Society is going to jointly organize this one and a half day conference with the Hong Kong Medical Association and the Chinese Medical Association in the Convention and Exhibition Centre in November. Full detail of which is enclosed herewith for your kind reference. From the panel of both overseas and local experts, you will certainly gain a lot of up-to-date scientific information on important topics in respiratory medicine in this event.
Volume 18 Number 1 • Mar/Apr 08
With this first periodical of year 2008, we would like to share with you a number of new changes of our Society. You may probably have been aware that the front cover and the Council Member List in this issue has included our dearest partner, the Hong Kong Lung Foundation.
Another milestone was the holding of the Educational Seminar of the Asian Pacific Society of Respiratory (ESAP 2008) for the very first time in Hong Kong, in conjunction with our Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM) in March. The twin events have reflected the commitment of the two chest societies to organize educational events to cater the evolving development of respiratory diseases, both locally and around the region. They are reported in details in this issue.
To encourage trainees and young fellows to actively participate in research, we have newly established the Dr William Chen’s Young Investigator’s Award. Its first winner “was born” in the ASM last month, details of which is also reported in this issue.
Together with other usual columns and sections, I hope you will enjoy this periodical.
Volume 17 Number 4 • Dec 07/ Jan 08
The Hong Kong Thoracic Society and the American College of Chest Physicians (Hong Kong and Macau chapter) successfully held an Autumn Respiratory Seminar in November 2007. This one-day programme is comprehensively reported in this issue and we have also included the highlights of clinical summaries presented in the “Interactive Grand Round” session of the Seminar.
The Hong Kong Lung Foundation Fellowship awardees have contributed in “Practical Corner” section in this issue and their articles are very useful and interesting. The “Special Event” section reported our members’ participation in the recently held “Sleep Disorder Symposium” in Hong Kong and “Asian Pacific Society of Respirology Conference 2007” in Australia.
Last but not the least, may I remind you that the Annual Scientific Meeting of HKTS/ACCP will be held at the end of March 2008. This is going to be an excellent opportunity for us to meet one another and update our knowledge in Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. Further details will be sent to you in due course.
Volume 17 Number 3 • Sep/ Oct 2007
Our Societies continued their activities over the hot summer. We held the ”Clinical Meeting” in July. Two interesting cases were presented by colleagues from Kwong Wah Hospital and Wong Tai Sin Hospital. An ”Asthma Symposium” with Prof Peter Barnes of UK was successfully held in August. Besides, the three “Fellows of Hong Kong Lung Foundation” shared their overseas training experiences in September and the summaries are highlighted for your interest. Two review articles by them on the corresponding topics will be published in the next issue. The “Practical Corner” continues to provide us with useful and interesting knowledge on various topics.
We are very glad indeed to take this opportunity to congratulate our doyen, Professor WK Lam, for his “Endowed Professorship” at the University of Hong Kong recently. This is the first Endowed Chair in Respiratory Medicine from the University of Hong Kong. Further information and the many contributions of Prof Lam to the Respiratory field are detailed in this issue as well.
Finally, I would like to remind you that the Societies are going to hold the Autumn Respiratory Seminar in November. We look forward to seeing you in this academic event to share and learn the most updated knowledge of the field.
Volume 17 Number 2 • Jun/ Jul 2007
The content in this issue continues to be rich. Apart from our usual sections of Case Summaries (that have been presented in the Society’s clinical meeting) and the Pracitcal Corner, a symposium of COPD given by Prof Peter Calverley of UK held in mid June is also reported. The Medical Statistics Corner is going to give its last chapter in this issue. I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to Dr Julie Wang for her good work of writing up the entire series of ten chapters in Medical Biostatics over the previous two years. I am sure all the readers find the information interesting and useful.
Finally, we are delighted to announce the result of the recently held Exit Examination of Respiratory Medical Board, Hong Kong College of Physicians, in which all seven candidates have passed and become Fellows of the field. Their dissertation abstracts are herewith included for your reading. I hope you will enjoy the various sections in this periodical.
Volume 17 Number 1, Mar/ Apr 2007
The Hong Kong Thoracic Society and the American College of Chest Physicians (Hong Kong and Macau chapter) have recently elected new Councils for 2007–2009. Our Newsletter will also be switching to a new Editorial Board. We are indebted to the outgoing board members, Drs Kah-lin Choo, James Ho and Maureen Wong, for their great contributions over past many years. We warmly welcome the new members, namely Drs Yuk-lung Kwok, David Lam, Arthur Lau, Man-po Lee, Ms Amon Lam and Ms Mary Tsang. With an expanded team of colleagues from different professions, the Editorial Board will strive to maintain the good work of our predecessors and try to enrich the contents of newsletter to foster communications among members and colleagues. In this issue, we continue to provide comprehensive information and knowledge in various sections as before and have reported the Annual Scientific Meeting of the two Societies that was held successfully last month. I hope you will find the content interesting and useful. Finally, on behalf of the Editorial Board, I would like to thank you all for your continued support.
Volume 16 Number 4 • Dec 2006 / Jan 2007
This is a special year for the respiratory community of Hong Kong as the 2006 marks the 20th anniversary of the Hong Kong Thoracic Society and the 10th anniversary of the Hong Kong Lung Foundation. One of the celebration events was the Respiratory Health Walkathon and we have reported that in this issue of the Newsletter. The clinical meeting presented by Caritas Medical Center was also reported.
Congratulations to Dr. July Lam of United Christian Hospital for passing the respiratory exit examination and became a Fellow in Respiratory Medicine in December 2006. She shared her dissertation abstract with our members here. Winner of the 2006 Dr. Tse Yuen Man Memorial Scholarship was also reported.
Time flies and this is the final issue from our current editorial board. Thanks to all the authors for their great contributions. We hope that you have enjoyed the past 8 issues of the Newsletter and all our board members will continue to serve the chest societies in Hong Kong.
Volume 16 Number 3 • Sept / Oct 2006
This is a special year for the respiratory community of Hong Kong as the 2006 marks the 20th anniversary of the Hong Kong Thoracic Society and the 10th anniversary of the Hong Kong Lung Foundation. We reported the celebration events which included the Autumn Respiratory Seminar 2006 and Anniversary Dinner in this issue of the Newsletter. An Anniversary Bulletin and Anniversary Memorial video have been specially produced as part of the celebration activities and both of these publications recorded the history of the Hong Kong Thoracic Society and the Hong Kong Lung Foundation. The clinical meetings presented by Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Kowloon Hospital are also reported in this current issue of the Newsletter.
We also have a special article in this issue of the Newsletter to pay tribute to the late Sister Mary Gabriel (MBE, FRCP). Sr. Gabriel contributed tremendously to respiratory service in Hong Kong and you can see the details in the article.
Finally, the practical corner and the medical statistic corner continue to provide interesting and useful knowledge to our readers.
Volume 16 Number 2 • Jun / Jul 2006
This issue of the Newsletter has reported 2 meetings, the Recent Advances in Sleep Medicine and the Scientific Roundtable Meeting: new evidence in COPD, organised by the Hong Kong Thoracic Society and the American College of Chest Physicians (HK and Macau Chapter). In this 20th anniversary year of the Hong Kong Thoracic Society and the 10th anniversary year of Hong Kong Lung Foundation, there will be a series of celbration events. We have listed these activities in this issue of the Newsletter and our members are most welcome to participate and to contribute.
Congratulations to the four doctors who have passed the respiratory exit examination and became Fellows in Respiratory Medicine recognised by the Hong Kong College of Physicians. Their dissertation abstracts are included in this Newsletter so that our members can also read their research work.
Finally, the practical corner and the medical statistic corner will continue to provide interesting and useful knowledge to our readers.
Volume 16 Number 1 • Mar / Apr 2006
The Annual Scientific Meeting of the HKTS and ACCP (HK and Macau Chapter) was held with great success on March 19, 2006 with more than 400 participants. On the same day, a press confernce was held in the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre with the title “Respiratory Health in Hong Kong: A Worsening Scenario?”. The press conference attracted much media attention and the message of banning tobacco smoking in public places and the need to improve our air quality was brought to the public.
We have also reported a very important scientific study published recently in this issue of the Newsletter. This study is on the updated spirometric reference value in Hong Kong Chinese. We should start using the new reference equations when calculating the predicted spirometric values for our patients.
The practical corner and the medical statistic corner will continue to provide interesting and useful knowledge to our readers.
We are stepping into the 20th anniversary year of the HKTS and the 10th anniversary year of the Hong Kong Lung Foundation. Reports of the celebration events will be presented the next few issues of the Newsletter.
Volume 15, Number 4, Dec 2005 to Jan 2006
We have reported the Autumn Respiratory Seminar, the prize presentation of the Dr. Tse Yuen Man Memorial Scholarship and a special education seminar on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in this issue of the newsletter. In addition, we have included in this issue two special articles on pneumothorax, written by physicians and surgeons with expert knowledge and experience in this field.
The FDA of USA, by announcing the result of the SMART study, had aroused some concern in the patients concerning the safety of long acting beta-agonist in the treatment of asthma. Dr. Christopher Lai, an expert of asthma in Hong Kong, will share with us his view on this aspect.
The practical corner and the medical statistic corner will continue to provide interesting and useful knowledge to our readers.
Our editorial board members would also like to take this chance to send our New Year Greetings to the members of the two Chest Societies.
Volume 15 Number 3 • Sep / Oct 2005
I am sure that everyone would like to breathe in fresh and clean air rather than to breathe in air that is “polluted” by tobacco smoke and vehicle exhaust. We have two special articles in this issue of the newsletter, one on the control of environmental tobacco smoke in Hong Kong, and the other on how to report “smoky vehicles” to the regulatory authority.
Congratulations to the 7 respiratory trainees who have passed their exit examination in the specialty board of Respiratory Medicine in June 2005. We have compiled their dissertation abstracts in this issue of the newsletter so that our readers can appreciate their research work.
In this issue of the newsletter, you can also find the report of the clinical meetings by 4 different hospitals, namely Queen Mary Hospital, Ruttonjee Hospital, Prince of Wales Hospital and Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital. The practical corner and the medical statistic corner will continue to provide interesting and useful knowledge to our readers.
Volume 15, Number 2, Jun/Jul 2005
The Symposium of Avian Influenza, jointly organized by the Hong Kong Thoracic Society and the American College of Chest Physicians (HK and Macau Chapter), sponsored by the Hong Kong Lung Foundation was held on April 16, 2005 with great success. Representative from Hong Kong had attended the 45th Japanese Respiratory Society Meeting in April 2005. We will report both events in this issue of the newsletter.
The new medical statistics corner introduced since last issue has received very good comments and we will thus continue this in the coming issues. Hope that you will enjoy reading the newsletter. The editorial board welcomes suggestions from all the readers for providing an informative and educational reading material to the members of our two local chest societies.
March 2004
The Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM) this year has been held successfully on 28thMarch 2004. With the increased awareness of infectious diseases, there was also a timely session on avian flu during the meeting. Shortly following the ASM, it has been great pleasure for some of the members of the local chest societies, headed by Prof. W.K. Lam (as president of Asian-Pacific Society of Respirology), to be invited to attend the Japanese Respiratory Society meeting in Tokyo. It served as a good opportunity for local members to share their experiences in academic research with members from overseas chest societies, as well as promoting the images of our local chest societies.
December 2003
As in the past, our Autumn Respiratory Seminar 2003 has been a major success. One of the main topics was on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). It has been almost one year since SARS first struck Hong Kong. The recently reported cases of coronavirus pneumonia in Guangdong, as well as the few cases in laboratory workers earlier on, were effectively contained. Though this might be related to the virulence of the coronavirus, more importantly, health care workers have to remain vigilant in their daily practice. Therefore, the HKTS and ACCP (HK & Macau Chapter) have just endorsed a set of timely guidelines for the practice of various respiratory procedures.
September 2003
In this issue of newsletter, there is a special section on the suggestions for the practice of various respiratory procedures in the post SARS era. An open forum on practice guidelines was held on 17th October 2003 by different local expert pulmonologists. This is especially important and timely to prepare for the potential threat of resurgence of SARS. With the increasing demand to organize various educational and scientific activities, the HKTS council has recently decided to recruit 4 new council members (Drs. KS Yee, MT Cheung, B Lam, and CM Ho).
June 2003
Since the last issue about half a year ago, there have been quite a number of major events in our chest community. We have elected our new council members (2003-05) for the Hong Kong Thoracic Society and the American College of Chest Physicians (Hong Kong and Macau chapter). As in the past, our Annual
Scientific Meeting has been successfully held in March this year. We, as well as many people in the world, were faced with a striking challenge of an epidemic of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which spread quickly and claimed lives of many people within the past few months. Because of the impact of SARS, especially on pulmonologists, we have suspended the issue in Mar/Apr this year, with the corresponding reports included in the current issue. An additional section on SARS and report on a timely SARS forum are also included. On behalf of the new editorial board, we would try our best in the coming 2 years to continue improving the academic values of our newsletter and update our members of major events.
September 2002, Dr Chu Chung Ming
Thanks to the never-ending support nom members of the Hong Kong Thoracic Society and the American College of Chest Physicians (Hong Kong and Macau Chapter), this newsletter continues to feature high quality articles. In this issue, one can enjoy the eloquent description of the patho-physiology of exercise limitation in a case presented by Dr Wai-kei Lam, the paradoxical worsening of TB in an HIV-infected patient by colleagues from QEH and the Chest Clinic, and an enigmatic pleural effusion by colleagues from PYNEH. We also have the delight of having Ms Gladys Ha, a paediatric nurse specialist, to tell us about sleep apnoea in childhood.
Trainees would also find the questions and answers in the practical comer immensely helpful.
June 2002
Thanks to the never-ending support nom members of the Hong Kong Thoracic Society and the American College of Chest Physicians (Hong Kong and Macau Chapter), this newsletter continues to feature high quality articles. In this issue, one can enjoy the eloquent description of the patho-physiology of exercise limitation in a case presented by Dr Wai-kei Lam, the paradoxical worsening of TB in an HIV-infected patient by colleagues from QEH and the Chest Clinic, and an enigmatic pleural effusion by colleagues from PYNEH. We also have the delight of having Ms Gladys Ha, a paediatric nurse specialist, to tell us about sleep apnoea in childhood. Trainees would also find the questions and answers in the practical comer immensely helpful.
March 2002
Thanks to the skilful leadership of the Presidents of HKTS and ACCP (HK & Macau Chapter), the Annual Scientific Meeting 2002 held on 23-24 March 2002 was once again a phenomenal success. The attendance by allied health professionals has broken all previous records. Members of the organizing committee could reminisce about this enjoyable event in the report published. In this issue, Prof W K Lam highlighted the GOLD programme. Members are encouraged to go to the GOLD website and reflect on how Hong Kong could participate in the effort to prevent and treat COPD. The training reports of the new Hong Kong Lung Foundation Fellows are published. Both Dr Fanny Ko and Dr Edwin Poon are interested in asthma and both have participated in the frontiers of research in asthma during their overseas training. Lastly, the editorial board extends a warm welcome to our new faces in the team.
December 2001
The Autumn Respiratory Seminar 2001 held on 25 November 2001 was a huge success. The attendance by allied health colleagues has been phenomenal. Credits should go to the Presidents of HKTS and ACCP (HK and Macau Chapter) and the Organising Committee in making the meeting meaningful and relevant to participants. In this issue, surgical friends from Queen Elizabeth Hospital share their perspectives in the surgical management of bronchogenic carcinoma and pneumothorax in the local settings. The abstracts of the work of seven new Respiratory Medicine Fellows also appear in this issue. We extend our heartiest congratulations to them for reaching an important milestone in their careers. We also have the delight of publishing the training reports of our Hong Kong Lung Foundation Fellows, Dr James CM Ho of Queen Mary Hospital and Dr Henry KH Kwok of Ruttonjee Hospital. They have made impressive achievements during their overseas training and have set a benchmark for future HKLF fellows.
September 2001
During the month of September 2001, the world witnessed the catastrophic events that occurred in the United States. It was therefore highly appropriate that the Regent of ACCP (HK & Macau chapter) sent message of condolence and sympathy to the ACCP. Back in Hong Kong, our two societies had been taking an active stand on the proposed legislative amendments to "Smoking (Public Health) Ordinance". In this issue, Professor Moira Chan- Yeung will provide some evidence on the negative impact of environmental tobacco smoke on nonsmokers. Respiratory health effects as a result of such exposure will also be reviewed. In the Archives of Respiratory Medicine, Dr William Chen will bring us down the memory lane and remind us how the patient-based Asthma Society was formed. With such efforts in mind, I am certain that the members of our thoracic societies will continue to stand for rightful causes in the community and contribute to the improvement of our patients' health.
June 2001
The new editorial board is given the onerous task of continuing with the success this Newsletter has enjoyed. This is no easy job, especially as our predecessors have made this task extremely difficult by having perfected the Newsletter in many ways. The editorial board is lucky, therefore, that your attention would be attracted to Prof Moira Chan- Yeung's marvelous account of the history of respiratory physiology and lung function testing. Readers who are intimidated by the current literature would be amused by Prof Chan- Yeung's remark that 'for those who think that molecular genetics is the key to every mystery of the human body, see what the respiratory physiologists will teach us in the decades to come'. We also have the pleasure of having Dr C C Ma to address us on the surgical management of spontaneous pneumothorax. The board has no illusion that we can surpass our predecessors. However, with your support and contribution, we are confident that our society and patients are better served, by sharing your thoughts with other colleagues in this Newsletter.
March 2001
This is the beginning of the year 2001 and the New councils of the two thoracic societies were just elected. The offices will last for 2 years and there are new blood joining. The Editorial board of this newsletter will also switch over to a new office and I congratulate to the success of the more energetic team. The scientific meeting 2001 was a great success as we have a closer encounter with the ACCP as well as respiratory physicians from Mainland and our neighbour country. This earmarked the increasing importance of the Asian Pacific bondage in the field of respiratory medicine. In this issue, we continue our "Archives in Respiratory Medicine" by recording the process of evolution of the Hong Kong Lung Foundation. Also, congratulation to the new specialists and their dissertation abstracts are presented. Thanks for the support from all of you and hope these support will continue forever, till we reached perfection, in upgrading our standard, in delivering better care to our patients and our society, and, in dissolving the boundary and removing the obstacles between respiratory physicians across the border, no matter is physical, political or virtual.
October, v1, n1, 1991
Don't be surprised by the good quality of the paper nor should you worry about a rise in the membership fee for funding this Newsletter! The council members of both chest societies feel that it is time to have a joint communique for their members as many of whom are having a dual membership and virtually all aCtIvitIes of these 2 societies are jointly organised. We also feel that many members may be interested in reading the reports on the cases presented in the clinical meetings and have therefore decided to include this new section in the Newsletter. With the generous funding from Astra Pharmaceuticals (HK) Ltd., we are able to achieve our aspirations by using high quality printing papers which allow the reproduction of X-ray films, an essential element in the case reports. The editorial board would like to thank Astra for their continued support to the chest societies and is keen to demonstrate to them this is money well spent. To that end, we would like to call upon your support in enriching the substance of the Newsletter by contributing new ideas, relevant articles on the topic of Respiratory Medicine, reports on international conferences, etc. With your cooperation, we are sure this Newsletter will continue to flourish under its glossy new dress.
