"The establishment of strategic programmes to improve child health is a relatively neglected area. Within medical services, neonatal care, specialist cancer or cardiovascular centres attract the limelight. I have chosen to endow the Doris Zimmern Professorship in Community Child Health, in memory of my late mother, as a means of injecting some academic vigour into this relatively neglected field. I also hope that my additional support for an academic unit will encourage even greater interest in this area from the Department of Health and the Hospital Authority, thereby attracting a community wide partnership that will improve the health of children."
Dr Ron Zimmern
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Doris Zimmern Professorship in Community Child Health
The Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine has a long history in contributing to paediatrics and child health, both locally and internationally, especially in the areas of infection, vaccination and genetics. Other areas include growth and development, rehabilitation, cancer and cardiac services, and medical education. It has pioneered and established many new subspecialty services for children since it was established in the early 1960’s as the first paediatric department in Hong Kong.
With the Doris Zimmern Professorship in Community Child Health, the department is committed to developing a comprehensive Community Child Health Programme.
Professor Lau, who graduated from the University of Glasgow in 1980, joined the department in 1988 as a lecturer. Currently Chair Professor in Paediatrics and Head of the Department and Associate Dean in Research of the Medical Faculty, Professor Lau is a well-known educator, researcher and practitioner in paediatrics and child health, specializing in infectious diseases, immunology and genetics.
Professor Lau’s main research interests include primary immunodeficiencies, genetics in childhood and immunological diseases, developmental and viral immunology, as well as control of childhood infectious diseases. He established an Asian Primary Immunodeficiencies Referral Network offering e-consultation and free genetic tests for such patients in China and other Asian countries, supported by the Society for the Relief of Disabled Children (SRDC). He also set up the Asian Lupus Genetics Consortium with collaborators from China and Thailand. His research team has contributed significantly to the understanding of how pathogens, such as the influenza virus cause disease, and the possible strategy in controlling them.
As a child health researcher and advocate he has worked towards the implementation of universal pneumococcal vaccination for Hong Kong children in his role as Chairman of the Working Group on Pneumococcal Vaccination, Department of Health.
Professor Lau is also organising a vaccination programme for 13,000 children under 2 years old in the earthquake region in Sichuan, in collaboration with paediatricians in Sichuan University and doctors in the Centre for Disease Control, supported by SRDC. His contribution was recognized with the Outstanding Researcher Award and the Mrs Gordon Wu Exchange Professorship by the University of Hong Kong.
Lau Yu-Lung