39 38 HKU ANNUAL REPORT 2025 TECH TRANSFER AND KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE HKUMED LAUNCHES COMMUNITY CLINICS The Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine brings its expertise closer to patients and gives students valuable clinical exposure through community clinics based at its Sassoon Road campus. The first HKUMed Community Pharmacy, which opened in November 2024, is Hong Kong’s first university community pharmacy. Established with funding from the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, it provides medication consultation and advice on chronic diseases and minor ailments and promotes health literacy and safe use of medication. As project partner, HKUMed is also helping create operational guidelines and build capacity for future community pharmacies across Hong Kong. HKUMed also has several other specialist clinics that were recently established, including the Integrative Medicine Clinic (integrating Western and Chinese medicine), HKUMed Immunology and Allergy Clinic, HKUMed Travellers’ Clinic and HKUMed Sports Health Clinic. In May 2025, it also launched the HKUMed Sports Health initiative, which is harnessing research and expertise to improve performance and prevent injuries in athletes and community players, and to promote their long-term health and well-being. The HKUMed Community Pharmacy, situated in the Faculty’s Academic Building on 3 Sassoon Road, adjacent to Queen Mary Hospital, serves as a platform for interprofessional healthcare services and research. The HKUMed Sports Health initiative aims to promote a transformative sports health landscape in the city. A COOKBOOK FOR SCRAPS A cookbook that aims to help reduce the mountainous problem of food waste (amounting to more than 3,400 tonnes a day in Hong Kong, or 30% of total waste) has been launched by a team led by Professor Jetty Lee Chung-yung in the School of Biological Sciences. Conscious Cooking – Asian Delights is based on findings by the School’s Food and Nutritional Science team that nine commonly discarded kitchen scraps, from onion skins to tea leaves, were edible and rich in nutrients. The cookbook features 20 original recipes, including contributions from HKU students and nine celebrated Hong Kong chefs. The book is a collaboration with the sustainability NGO GREEN Hospitality and the food-saving app CHOMP, and is part of an initiative funded by the HKU Knowledge Exchange Fund, called Food Waste to Good Taste, that aims to raise awareness about Hong Kong’s food waste problem and equip food and beverage practitioners with practical skills and menu ideas for minimising waste. Profits from the book are being donated to Foodlink Foundation, a charity dedicated to fighting hunger, building self-sufficiency, and fostering nutritional wellness among those in need. IMPROVING MENTAL HEALTH IN THE ELDERLY About one in 10 older people in Hong Kong suffer from clinically significant depressive symptoms, a situation that motivated Professor Terry Lum Yat-sang, Henry G Leong Professor in Social Work and Social Administration, to develop a wideranging, long-term solution with a team of multidisciplinary researchers. Between 2016 and 2019, the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust funded Professor Lum’s team to develop and pilot a stepped-care intervention for older people living with depressive symptoms in the community. The pilot was very successful, and the project, called JC JoyAge, has been expanded to all 18 districts in Hong Kong since 2020. It has reached more than 100,000 older people and provided direct clinical services to more than 10,000 elderly. It has also trained more than 7,600 older people to be mental health ambassadors and more than 1,200 to be peer supporters, and trained more than 250 social workers to provide evidence-based psychological intervention. An assessment of JC JoyAge’s impact found it was 3.6 times more effective in treating existing depressive symptoms than care-as-usual and 5.7 times more effective in preventing depression. In 2024, the Jockey Club provided new funding for a pilot project targeting mental healthcare in middle-aged people. JC JoyAge received the University’s Knowledge Exchange Excellence Award 2024. The JC JoyAge project has been expanded to provide mental health support to a wider age range. Professor Terry Lum Yat-sang (fifth from right) and his team were awarded the University’s Knowledge Exchange Excellence Award 2024 for their project ‘JC JoyAge – Holistic Support Project for Elderly Mental Wellness’. Beyond technological solutions, HKU scholars are also reaching out in the community to help improve people’s lives and the environment. Community Impact HKU teamed up with local chefs and sustainability advocates to turn scraps into delicious dishes with the Cookbook Conscious Cooking – Asian Delights. Learn more about the Food Waste to Good Taste project
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