From January 25-27, 2019, the 47th Sino Luso International Medical Forum will discuss medical education at a historic junction in Macao with the recent news of the city’s first Medical School to open at the Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST). Titled, “Medical Education Development in Macau SAR”, the three-day scientific symposium will see over 250 scholars, scientists, and frontline healthcare providers attend and participate.

This forum will cover the full span of current issues and initiatives in medical education and training. It aims to inspire and motivate participants to acquire new knowledge and link Macao to peers across the Greater Bay Area and to the world.

The Macao leg of the forums take place at the Faculty of Health Sciences at Macau University of Science and Technology and the Dr. Stanley Ho Medical Foundation at the Landmark hotel. These will train Macao and regional frontline healthcare providers with advanced skills training workshops and further lectures on innovation in health sciences.

Sino Luso International Medical Forum President Professor Manson Fok, current Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at MUST, comments, “This forum is timely for the people of Macao. For the past eight years, our Faculty of Health Sciences has provided postgraduate medical education and professional training for doctors and nurses working in the Macao SAR. I am absolutely delighted that this work has been recognized by the Macao Government. We are excited that the official announcement was made today, January Fourteenth, in the year Two-Thousand Nineteen, for us to offer an undergraduate medical training program, “MBBS degree”, for the first time in Macau SAR. The forum aims to provide delegates with innovative ideas and vital information to enable them to improve their medical educational practices and allows them to collaborate across disciplines. Many of our participants are from the Greater Bay Area and overseas—they come to transcend geographic boundaries to build greater collaborations in medical education for the future.”

Prof Manson Fok adds, “The new Medical School in Macao represents an important and significant milestone for the city, and for the development of MUST. This builds upon the outstanding work of the Faculty of Health Sciences at MUST in the delivery of medical education and surgical training, which we have conducted for thousands of healthcare providers over the past eight years. This is the reason why this particular forum will be distinctive with a strong focus on widening access to general practice, surgical procedures, and curriculum designs, etc.”

The symposium will be led by renowned keynote speakers, including Professor Erwin Hontiveros, Vice Dean of the Davao Medical School in the Philippines, who will speak about his innovative curriculum to be established in his new academic year. Also headlining from the Philippines is Dr Ababon Fides, Director of the Simulation Center of Davao Medical School, who will present papers about an innovative computing method to run regular tests and examinations for her students by using paperless medical examination.

An international medical education expert, Professor Niv Patil, honorary clinical professor of the Hong Kong University will speak about, “Competency Based Medical Education”.

Vice-President of the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine and the Chairman of the Academy’s Education Committee, Professor Gilberto Leung will also share his insight about the role of the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine in post graduate education.

Another key presenter is Professor Felix Wong, an obstetrician and gynecologist who serves as a Conjoint Professor of the School of Women’s & Children’s Health in the Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Australia. Prof Wong commented, “My intention is to share innovate and best practice within OBGYN skills training and medical education. I am also very happy to learn that MUST has the final approval of establishing a new medical school in Macao.”

Forum organizers are also delighted that clinical Assistant Professor Wong Tak Man from the Department of Orthopedics and Traumatology, and Associate Professor Amelia Hui, on OBGYN expert from the University of Hong Kong, will act as co-chairs at the symposium session.

Vice President of the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, Professor Kuang Ming, will also speak about his Basic Surgical Training program that has successfully been running in Southern China for the past few years.

Dr. Billy Chan, Vice President of the forum, said, “I’m eager to learn more from our panel of experts. Indeed, these are very valuable additions to medical simulation education, which I have been working in for over 30-years and am excited to know more about, especially from a new paperless medical examination system introduced by our Davao colleagues. They will certainly increase the participants’ perspectives for the better.”

First launched in 2011, the Sino Luso International Medical Forum has trained over 10,000 doctors in Macao, the Greater Bay Area, China and Asia. Its sister the Sino Asia Pacific International Forum was launched in 2015 in Manila, Philippines and has donated medical equipment in Cambodia and now to the people of Davao, Philippines.