Hong Kong medical museum offers visitors chance to use mock surgery tools as part of showcase charting progress of modern medicine
- Showcase titled ‘Modern Medicine’ will allow visitors to experience what it may be like to perform surgery and includes exhibit covering fields of obstetrics and gynaecology
- Visitors can also check out past and present medical instruments, which show how far medical science has developed, museum says
A new exhibition at the Hong Kong Museum of Medical Sciences aims to chart the progress of modern medicine and generate more appreciation for the field, a member of the organising team has said.
The showcase, titled “Modern Medicine”, includes interactive elements and displays featuring various medical instruments. It also features a special focus exhibit covering the fields of obstetrics and gynaecology.
“By creating this exhibition, we really hope people will learn that there are reasons and evidence for what they hear when they visit doctors,” exhibition working group leader Dr Rose Mak Ha-ling said on Thursday.
She also said organisers hoped to map out the development of modern medicine and foster interest in the subject among residents.
Mak is a director at the Hong Kong Museum of Medical Sciences Society, which operates the museum.
According to Mak, the exhibition offers something for everyone, with elements catering to families, school pupils, medical students and even retired doctors.
Chief among the showcase was a display of past and present medical instruments that showed how far the medical sciences had developed, she said.
One of the items on display is the Brown-Buerger Cystoscope, which was introduced in 1907 and used to examine the inside of the urethra and the bladder, as well as assist with medical procedures involving those parts of the anatomy.
The instrument was widely used until it was replaced in the 1970s, when practitioners adopted tools with modern lens systems and fibre-optic lighting.
The interactive elements at the exhibition include an installation that allows guests to experience what it is like to perform minimally invasive surgical procedures, through the use of replica instruments to remove or place beads on posts.
While the special exhibit currently focuses on obstetrics and gynaecology, the museum will change the theme to cover different specialities over time. The venue did not offer a detailed timeline for when the various fields would go on display.
Mak said the museum opted to begin with obstetrics and gynaecology because everyone started as babies, and the subjects both involved medicine and surgery. She added that Hongkongers had also made contributions to both fields in the past.
