Proposed Hong Kong medical school will train ‘new generation’ of tech-savvy doctors, says HKUST president Nancy Ip

HKUST president Nancy Ip says she hopes doctors trained by university will help to alleviate city’s long-standing shortage of medical professionals

World-renowned researcher says doctors who can embrace new technology are needed so they can provide better patient care

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President Nancy Ip says medical care will also be affected by advances in technology. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Published: 8:30am, 20 May 2024

Doctors trained at a proposed third medical school in the city will be tech-savvy and capable of conducting clinical investigations, the head of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology has said, pointing to benefits including multiplied economic returns and better patient treatment.

HKUST president Professor Nancy Ip Yuk-yu, a world-renowned researcher on Alzheimer’s disease, said she also hoped the “new generation of doctors” trained by the university would help to alleviate the city’s long-standing shortage of medical professionals.

“We need to have medical doctors who can embrace the new technology so that they can provide better patient care,” said Ip, revealing her further thoughts behind the medical school plan in an interview with the Post.

The university confirmed its plan for the setting up the city’s third medical school in October, months after reports about it began circulating.

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology campus in Clear Water Bay. Photo: May Tse

With artificial intelligence (AI) leading the world into a so-called fifth Industrial Revolution – a new phase where humans worked alongside advanced technologies – medical care would also be affected, Ip said.