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The Macau University of Science and Technology will offer the city’s first Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery programme from the 2019-20 academic year. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Letters | Macau’s new medical school is just what the doctor ordered

    Macau
    On January 14, the Macau government made a historic announcement in its official gazette, allowing the Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST) to offer a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery commencing in the 2019-20 academic year.

    This effectively launches the city’s first medical school since the Portuguese established a colony in 1557. Hong Kong, by contrast, has had a medical school since 1887, when the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese was established. It has six medical training institutions today.

    MUST’s dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, Professor Manson Fok, whose father was the late Henry Fok, and its director for the Centre of Professional Medical Excellence, Dr Billy Chan, have largely powered this medical education momentum, notably with hi-tech simulation training. The dynamic duo of Professor Fok and Dr Chan have also given over 10,000 frontline health care providers from Macau and the region a dose of non-profit training for the past eight years with their Sino-Luso International Medical Forums, launched in 2011.

    Medical education is a community-wide push in Macau now. For example, in December 2017, Chief Executive Fernando Chui Sai-on submitted a report to Beijing for Greater Bay Area medical education planning. University of Macau’s current Faculty of Health Sciences is committed to cutting-edge research, and the university has just launched a new Master’s programme in big data, including precision medicine. Macau Polytechnic’s local nursing programme is also laudable, with medical education well poised for expansion. The city’s Education and Youth Affairs Bureau recently issued a report on technical education, proposing integration with higher education to allow easy transition from the technical and vocational system to tertiary education.

    Next month, Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng is expected to visit the region to announce the development plan for the Greater Bay Area. In Macau, he will find hi-tech medical education thriving with innovation – a key element in the plan to make Macau a smart city and a “centre of world tourism and leisure”.

    The upcoming 47th Sino-Luso International Medical Forum will host over 250 participants from around the world, and news of the city’s first ever medical school will indeed add to conversations that are transforming this region – one medical student at a time.

    Christopher Cottrell, PhD student, University of St Joseph, Macau

     

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