Mission and Vision

The department was established in 1982 under the foundation Chairmanship of Professor PC Leung. The first batch of medical students started to have their clinical orthopaedic teaching in 1983.

Through the years, the department has grown and developed under the clear Mission and Vision "to provide the highest quality service in patient care, research, education and teaching for medical students and postgraduate training".

The department has grown from a single professor team to more than 40 clinical colleagues and 60 supporting clerical, technical and research staff now. It would be appropriate to divide the development of the department into three different phases, namely the establishment, the expansion and the consolidation phases. The initial establishment phase stretched from 1982 to 1990 and could be regarded as the infancy and childhood phase. This was followed by a rapid expansion phases from 1991 to 1996 by "hundred flowers blooming" phase which was quite similar to the pre - adolescent and adolescent phase. The past few years, from 1997-2001 featured the early consolidation and sustained growth of the department with the analogy of early and young adulthood phase.

On the clinical services, the department has developed along the major fields of subspecialties in orthopaedics, from Hand and Microsurgery, Sports Medicine, Traumatology, Paediatric Orthopaedics to Orthopaedic Oncology, Spinal injury, Orthopaedic Rehabilitation, Joint Reconstruction Surgery to the latest addition of Foot and Ankle surgery 3 years ago. Many of these subspecialties enjoy significant local, regional and international professional and academic recognition and achievements.

Commitment to quality teaching of medical students is one of the main keystones of the department. The department has been involving in the teaching of musculoskeletal system and orthopaedics in Med 3 and Med 5 students and with the introduction of the new curriculum in 2001, teaching has been extended further into year 1 and 2. With the setting up of a formal teaching committee and departmental teaching coordinator, the curriculum in musculoskeletal system is regularly reviewed and updated. Regular teaching quality assessment, meeting with students and annual curriculum review with honorary teachers has helped not only to update but continuous improvement of the quality of teaching as reflected by the evaluation results and recognition by the faculty and university.

Significant growth has been achieved in the research area. From purely clinical reviews and research, the department has steadily expanded in the years to cover different areas of basic and applied basic research that spread from soft tissue, bone and cartilage to biomaterials, osteoporosis and traditional Chinese medicine. The research committee and the musculoskeletal research laboratory structure now have clear responsibility and function to plan, advice and implement defined policies related to research. Three main focused research programs and functionalisation have been established to incorporate all teaching and research staff of the department. The research output and research grants have increased significantly over the years both in quantity and quality. Up to now, 50 Mphil, 23 PhD and 2 MD have graduated from the department. Active collaborations with other departments, universities and research institutions locally, regionally and with other countries have opened up many new and important areas of research.

The department has put great emphasis on the development of information technology and audiovisual supporting services to all staff from administration to training, teaching, research to clinical services. The whole department is now connected by a sophisticated system of high-speed Intranet. Active research and application of IT in enhancement of web-based interactive teaching is well supported.One of the most important highlights of the department is the establishment of the Orthopaedic Learning Centre from generous donations around 2 million US$ in total. Since it's opening in April 1999, over 5,000 local, regional and international participants have attended different courses and workshops conducted in the centre. The centre has also been recognised as advanced training centre by various societies and also a favorite center for visit by any outside guest to the Faculty of Medicine.

Throughout the years, colleagues of the department have and will continue to be actively committed to the university, the professional and specialty development, and play important roles in public services, voluntary services and services to the community. With the support, spirit and dedication of colleagues at all levels, we can proudly look forward into the future, continue to strive, seek and develop "to provide the highest quality service in patient care, research, education and teaching for medical students and postgraduate training".