The Hong Kong Thoracic Society (HKTS) was established in August 1987 with Dr SL Chan, Dr SY So and Dr WK Lam as the founding President, Vice-President and Hon Secretary respectively. HKTS was founded by a group of physicians with special interest in thoracic medicine, they recognized the increasing number of physicians and surgeons who are having special interest in thoracic diseases and the need to form different subspecialty societies and associations locally.
The Society works along with the following objectives:
- To promote the advancement of study of thoracic diseases.
- To coordinate and correlate the efforts of organizations, companies, associations, societies, institutions, statutory bodies and other authorities and individuals interested in the causes, diagnosis, prevention and treatment of thoracic diseases with a view to reduce morbidity and mortality in Hong Kong.
- To promote, foster, develop and assist medical and allied profession in the study of and the acquisition, dissemination and application of knowledge and information concerning the causes, diagnosis, prevention and treatment of thoracic disease.
- To encourage, stimulate and aid research and investigations.
- To stimulate public interest and provide public education.
- To encourage, assist and arrange for medical practitioners, scientist, students and others to come to Hong Kong for the purposes of research and study and for the purposes of teaching and demonstrating theory and practice and to travel aboard and engage in research, study and training and to gain experiences, all in the causes, diagnosis, prevention and treatment of thoracic diseases.
There are 3 committees in the HKTS looking after different aspects related to the development of Respiratory Medicine in Hong Kong.
- The Scientific Committee is responsible for coordinating the territory-wide clinical and epidemiology studies, surveys, disease registries and practice guidelines. Studies performed include the adult lung function study, survey on home non-invasive ventilation, survey on mesothelioma, survey on practice of fiberoptic bronchoscopy, a project on community acquired pneumonia and a study on risk factors of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in Hong Kong.
- The Education Committee looks after the organisation of clinical and scientific meetings, workshops, and seminars.
- The Publicity and Membership Committee is responsible for the publication of the HKTS newsletter (published quarterly), maintenance of web-page and membership list.
For more information, please visit the official website: https://hkts.hk/index/about/about-hong-kong-thoracic-society
