CCOUC Visits Nuffield Department of Medicine at Oxford University

CCOUC Director Professor Emily Chan led a delegation of the Centre to attend meetings with renowned medical professionals within Oxford University on 11 December 2014,. This visit came following a five-year Memorandum of Understanding between CUHK and Oxford University renewed in December 2013 for CCOUC as a collaborative research centre of the two institutions.

After receiving a tour of the recently-built NDM Research Building (including space usage and state-of-the-art facilities), the CCOUC delegation met with Professor Peter Horby, CCOUC Management Advisory Board member and Senior Clinical Research Fellow at the Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, Nuffield Department of Medicine (NDM) at Oxford University. Prof Horby is an infectious disease and global health specialist who is currently leading investigational Ebola treatments in West Africa. He is also the former Director of the Oxford University Clinical Research (OUCRU) Hanoi in Vietnam. OUCRU has been based in Ho Chi Minh City of Vietnam since its establishment in 1991 and has units in Hanoi, Jakarta and Kathmandu. The discussions highlighted areas of potential collaborations between CCOUC team in Hong Kong and Professor Horby’s team in Oxford and both parties were pleased to strengthen existing ties and to increase communication.

CCOUC also held a meeting with NDM’s Professor Trudie Lang, the founder and co-investigator of the Global Health Network. During the meeting, Professor Lang introduced how the Global Health Network functions as an “online science park”: creating an effective platform whereby scientists across the world can collectively develop rigorous clinical trials methodologies and share their best practices and protocols. CCOUC is exploring ways in which the Centre could engage with the Global Health Network in disaster research methodologies and dissemination of key skills amongst the network’s global community.

These meetings were also attended by Mr. Darren Nash, Associate Head of the Nuffield Department of Medicine, and Ms. Karen Valentine, Head of Operations of the Nuffield Department of Medicine. The CCOUC delegation consisted of Professor Emily Chan, Director of CCOUC, Ms Gloria Chan, CCOUC Centre Manager, and a number of CCOUC fellows.

Over the course of these meetings, Professor Emily Chan presented to Professor Peter Horby and Mr. Darren Nash two souvenir frames, containing posters which discribe the standardised content of CCOUC’s disaster preparedness kit. Professor Chan also presented copies of the Routledge Handbook of Global Public Health in Asia to the Oxford team, authored and edited by professors of the JC School of Public Health and Primary Care (JCSPHPC), The Chinese University of Hong Kong. The gifts were well received and were welcomed as unique educational mementos of the CCOUC’s fruitful visit.

(From left) Ms. Karen Valentine, Professor Emily Chan, Mr. Darren Nash and Professor Trudie Lang receive the Disaster Preparedness Souvenir Frames and Routledge Handbook of Global Public Health in Asia.

(From 3rd left to right) Ms. Karen Valentine, Professor Emily Chan, Mr. Darren Nash and Professor Trudie Lang (from 3rd left to right) pose with the CCOUC team.