Current Issue

NOTABLE FAMILY DOCTOR PROFILE IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION

Alex Ka-cheong Kwok

City and country where he works: Lantau Island, Hong Kong, China.
Special interests: geriatric medicine, practice and teaching in home and residential care of elderly

Personal Profile

Dr Alex Kwok graduated from the University of Hong Kong in 1979 and attained the Diploma of Geriatric Medicine from the Royal College of Physicians, London in 1991. Alex has devoted himself to medical practice amidst the rural population of Hong Kong for more than 20 years.
Since 1982, Dr Kwok has paid regular home visits to various rural areas of Lantau, an outlying island of Hong Kong where a large portion of the residents are older and medical facilities are less readily available than in the urban areas. The Po Lin Monastery, a world-renowned tourist spot, is also a venue where the local elderly would line up and see Dr Kwok for consultation.
Apart from his commitment to taking care of the elderly in the rural areas, Dr Kwok has also been actively involved in the training of medical students, sharing his expertise of in-home and residential care of the elderly with the younger generation. He has participated in the clinical teaching of Hong Kong Univeristy students from 1989 to the present on Lantau Island, carrying the title of Honorary Clinical Lecturer of General Practice from 1989 to 1999 and Honorary Clinical Assistant Professor of Family Medicine from 2000 to 2004. Moreover, from 2002 to the present, Dr Kwok has been an honorary primary care physician of the Hospital Authority.
To further enhance his role as an experienced family doctor specializing in geriatric medicine, Dr Kwok also serves as a visiting medical officer to various homes for the elderly located in different parts of Hong Kong, and participates in the provision of integrated home care services by various non-government organizations, including the Caritas, Yan Oi Tong, Pok Oi Hospital and St. James Settlement. He has also taken part in the sentinel surveillance system on communicable disease under the Department of Health, Hong Kong, SAR, from 1998 to the present.

Vision for Family Medicine

Providing quality and comprehensive care for the elderly and preparing oneself to meet the demands of an emerging ageing population are the prime concerns of Dr Kwok, as well as the challenge faced by the medical profession. He believes family doctors have an increasingly important role to play in the caring of the elderly at home and in public institutions. The profession, both medical students and family doctors alike, should therefore accustom themselves to the different causes, physiological, psychological, social and financial, that give rise to problems faced by the elderly, as well as the resources available to solve these kinds of problems.