Know Thy Guts: S.H. Ho Centre for Digestive Health

We all love to eat, but we seldom care to think about what happens to that curry fishball once it disappears down the hatch, until the guts decide to show a little insubordination. With the need to peep inside and keep proper house within came the advent of endoscopy in the 19th century, and the innovation never stops. Today, the S.H. Ho Centre for Digestive Health of CUHK is an epitome of the state-of-the-art technique in endoscopic examination, where having a gut check has become less painful and more efficient than ever before.

The logo of the Centre has all its elements housed in a circle, a universal symbol of wholeness, inclusion and perfection. Here, it is used to represent the human digestive system—a group of organs that work together to change the food one eats into the energy and nutrients the body needs to work properly.

The core of the design is a sinuous, bold, golden-yellow tube, symbolizing a full gastrointestinal (GI) tract. The human GI tract consists of the oesophagus, the stomach, and the small and large intestines. A fun fact about the small intestine is that it is so named not because of its size but because of its narrowness. If we straighten out the small intestine, it can reach six to eight metres, which is four times the length of the body. So much can be compacted into the tummy because the small intestine is coiled to take up less space.

A thin, tentacle-like white squiggle penetrates the lower part of the yellow tube, which indicates the endoscope a GI specialist uses to examine one’s digestive system. The round head of the squiggle represents the light source attached to the endoscope that helps to illuminate and visualize the ‘dark tunnel’.

Bisected by the GI tract, the logo applies the colour of dark purple to the right swirl and white to the left, calling to mind the yin-yang symbol. It seems to convey the message that although endoscopy is a Western invention, the universal key to digestive health lies in a well-balanced diet and lifestyle.

Christine N.

This article was originally published in No. 507, Newsletter in Nov 2017.

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S.H. Ho Centre for Digestive Health brand endoscopic examination