Chinese University of Hong Kong names top surgeon as new head of medical school

Chiu thanked the university’s search committee and the faculty for their support, and praised Chan’s leadership over the past decade.

He added that he would build on the achievements of his predecessors and further strengthen the faculty’s position as a leading medical school in the region.

“In the coming months, I will be meeting with different stakeholders, actively listening to their expectations and suggestions for the faculty,” he said.

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“In the years to come, I will work closely with students, staff, alumni and different sectors of the community to contribute to the health of humankind.”

The university established the search committee in October 2022 and launched an open global search in January the following year.

It said the committee unanimously recommended Chiu as the most suitable candidate after considering applications and nominations from around the world.

He was then recommended for the role by the university’s vice-chancellor Rocky Tuan Sung-chi.

Tuan said he was confident that Chiu would make the faculty a stronger global leader when it came to clinical excellence and education.

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Chiu performed the first endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) for the treatment of early gastrointestinal cancers in Hong Kong in 2004, and the first peroral endoscopic myotomy, a procedure to treat esophageal motility disorders, in the city in 2010, according to the university.

He also pioneered the world’s first robotic gastric ESD in 2011 and the first robotic colorectal ESD in 2020.

Professor John Chai Yat-chiu, governing council chairman at the university, said Chiu was an ideal leader who had a profound understanding of the faculty and the local healthcare system.

“Together with his proven leadership in innovation and technology, I trust [the faculty of medicine] to contribute even more impactfully to opportunities presented by the many Hong Kong innovation and technology initiatives and to scale newer heights in medical education and research for the benefits of mankind,” he said.