活動

2011年11月11日

下午六時正

新界沙田威爾斯親王醫院臨床醫學大樓二樓演講廳

Biographical Sketch

Professor Jean Woo graduated from Cambridge University in 1974.  After medical posts in the Charing Cross, Hammersmith, and Brompton Hospitals, she worked in part time posts in general practice as well as research in The University of Hong Kong.  She joined the Department of Medicine at The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1985 as Lecturer responsible for the development of the teaching and service in Geriatric Medicine, becoming Head of the Department in 1993 until 1999, Chief of Service of the Medicine and Geriatric Unit at Shatin Hospital from 1993, and Chair Professor of Medicine in 1994.  From 2000-2006 she was Head of the Department of Community and Family Medicine, and from 2001-2005 Director of the newly established School of Public Health.  Currently she heads the Division of Geriatric Medicine of the Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, is Chief of Service (General) of the Medicine and Geriatric Unit at Shatin Hospital, and Honorary Professor, Faculty of Social Sciences, The University of Hong Kong.  Her research interests include chronic diseases affecting elderly people, health services research, nutrition epidemiology, quality of life issues at the end of life, with over 550 articles in peer-reviewed indexed journals.

Synopsis of the Lecture

In 2007, there were 900,000 people aged 65 and above in Hong Kong, a doubling of the number compared with two decades ago.  By 2030 it is projected that one in four people will be aged 65 years and over.  Yet chronological age is not as important as ‘functional’ age: that is whether one can retain physical and cognitive function and avoid chronic diseases.  There exist a rapidly increasing number of frail older people who are relegated to the fringe of society at all levels, from policy to service provision to research.  They remain invisible to mainstream debates on these issues.

An integrated framework for research opportunities into ageing well will be described, covering personal and environmental contributory factors; ageing well outcomes at the population, individual and biological level; and innovation of service development and evaluation.  The talk will cover some of my research activities in the area of nutritional strategies for successful ageing, the impact of the living environment on health outcomes, the use of a positive ageing index and frailty index as population indicators of ageing well, the development and need for a health and social care system orientated to complex needs that integrate health and social components with an emphasis on empowerment, quality end of life care, and long term care in the residential care setting.