News

President Teng and Dr Miranda Lou met with RS High-Flyer students

2019 – 2020 High Flyer Mentorship Programme luncheon was held on 13 September 2019. RS was so pleased to have Prof. Jin-Guang Teng (President of PolyU), Dr Miranda Lou (Executive Vice President of PolyU), Prof. David Shum (Yeung Tsang Wing Yee and Tsang Wing Hing Professor in Neuropsychology, Chair Professor of Neuropsychology, Dean, Faculty of Health and Social Sciences) and more than 30 staff and high flyer of Year 1 students from Department of Rehabilitation Sciences (RS) joined the luncheon. When delivering the welcome speech, President Teng welcomed the students to PolyU and RS, and congratulated for their excellent results on DSE and IB or outstanding sports achievement. He encouraged the students to develop the ability of self-learning and using their professional knowledge that trained by RS to serve the community in the future.  Prof. Hector Tsang (Cally Kwong Mei Wan Professor in Psychosocial Health, Chair Professor of Rehabilitation Sciences and Head, Department of Rehabilitation Sciences) explained that the High Flyer Mentorship Programme provided a platform for high flyer students to meet with the elite alumni from Physiotherapy (PT) or Occupational therapy (OT) fields.  They are able to receive the advice about the study and future career to strengthen their sense of belonging and take pride in studying PT and OT. The students also shared the reasons for choosing to study PT and OT programme and the vision of the study during the sharing session. During the lunch after the sharing, the attendees exchanged their views on different topics, especially regarding the future development of PolyU in Greater Bay Area. They were very engaged in the exchange and looking forward to the upcoming event.

Prof. Hector Tsang visited to Kwai Tsing District Health Centre

Prof. Hector Tsang (Cally Kwong Mei Wan Professor in Psychosocial Health, Chair Professor of Rehabilitation Sciences and Head, Department of Rehabilitation Sciences (RS)) is a member of Steering Committee on Primary Healthcare Development (Food and Health Bureau) conducted a VIP visit to Kwai Tsing District Health Centre (K&TDHC) on 11 September 2019 before the opening of K&TDHC. K&TDHC is the first district health centre in Hong Kong. The Centre will be launched at the end of September. It will provide health promotion, health assessment, chronic disease management, and community rehabilitation services to the public in a new mode. The delegation from Food and Health Bureau, Department of Health, Steering Committee on Primary Healthcare Development and Management Committee of Kwai Tsing District Health Centre gain a better understanding of the status and readiness for service launching of the K&TDHC during the visit. At the end of the visit, Prof. Sophia CHAN (Secretary for Food and Health, Food and Health Bureau) conducted a briefing regarding the latest development of District Health Centre to the members of Steering Committee on Primary Healthcare Development. For more details of the visits, please visit the FaceBook Page of Prof. Sophia CHAN (Chinese only)

Visit to the Hong Kong Sports Institute

Prof. Hector Tsang (Cally Kwong Mei Wan Professor in Psychosocial Health, Chair Professor of Rehabilitation Sciences and Head, Department of Rehabilitation Sciences (RS)) and Dr Amy Fu (Associate Professor and Associate Head of RS) conducted a visit to the Hong Kong Sports Institute ("HKSI") yesterday (2 September) to better understand the latest development of HKSI on the training of elite athletes. During the lunch meeting with Dr Trisha Leahy (Chief Executive of HKSI), Mr Tony Choi (Deputy Chief Executive of HKSI), and Dr Raymond So (Technical Director of HKSI), Prof. Tsang and Dr Fu took the opportunity to exchange views on the provision of support to the elite athletes and the possible collaborations between RS and HKSI. Followed by a tour visit to the sports medicine and sports sciences departments, as well as the training venues of table tennis and fencing teams, Prof. Tsang and Dr Fu were able to gain a better understanding of the development of HKSI on various aspects including sports physiotherapy, sports recovery, sports nutrition and monitoring, sports psychology and monitoring, sport training and monitoring sections.

Congratulations to Dr Bolton Chau for winning "RS Best Paper Award 2019"

 The Department of Rehabilitation Sciences is pleased to announce that that the RS BEST PAPER AWARD 2019 goes to Dr Bolton Chau (Assistant Professor, RS) for his following publication:   Output Ref. 2018000160 Output Description "The macaque anterior cingulate cortex translates counterfactual choice value into actual behavioral change". Nature Neuroscience, Vol. 22, No. 5, pp.797-808 (May 2019) ISSN 1097-6256(print), 1546-1726(electronic) (http://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-019-0375-6) Authors Fouragnan, Elsa F.* Chau, Bolton K H Folloni, Davide Kolling, Nils Verhagen, Lennart Klein-Flügge, Miriam Tankelevitch, Lev Papageorgiou, Georgios K. Aubry, Jean-Francois Sallet, Jerome Rushworth, Matthew F. S. Name of Journal Nature Neuroscience Impact factor 2018 21.126 SCI/SSCI, non-index SCI Subject Category NEUROSCIENCES - SCIE Total Journals in Category 267 Journal Rank in Category 2 % 0.75%   The selection panel (Prof. David Shum, Prof. David Man, Head of RS) has concluded the result based on the following criteria. • Dr Bolton Chau (listed as 2nd author) has declared equal contribution to the paper. • The journal is highly prestigious in the field and has very high impact factor which far surpassed the other competing papers in this reporting year. • The paper is translational in nature having potential for application in rehabilitation. This award will continue in the coming four years during headship of Prof. Hector Tsang until 2023, hoping to encourage more staff members to produce high impact journal papers.  

Congratulations to Prof. Margaret Mak for winning "RS Best Paper Award 2018"

The Department of Rehabilitation Sciences is pleased to announce that that the RS BEST PAPER AWARD 2018 goes to Prof. Margaret Mak (Professor of Physiotherapy Shun Hing Education and Charity Fund Fellow in Rehabilitation Sciences, Associate Dean of Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, Professor of RS) for her following publication: Output Description "Long-term effects of exercise and physical therapy in people with Parkinson disease". Nature Reviews Neurology, Vol. 13, No. 11, pp.689-703 (Oct 2017) ISSN 1759-4758(print), 1759-4766(electronic) (http://www.nature.com/doifinder/10.1038/nrneurol.2017.128) Authors MAK, MKY* YU, WONG Sin Kwan Irene Shen, Xia CHUNG, Lau Ha Name of Journal Nature Reviews Neurology Impact factor 2017 19.819 Grade A/B/C (Grade A: IF >= 2.2; Grade B: 2.2>IF>=1.4; Grade C: IF   A SCI/SSCI, non-index SCI Subject Category CLINICAL NEUROLOGY - SCIE Total Journals in Category 197 Journal Rank in Category 2   This award will continue in the coming four years during headship of Prof. Hector Tsang until 2023, hoping to encourage more staff members to produce high impact journal papers.

RS Inauguration Ceremony 2019/20

The Inauguration Ceremony 2019-2020 of Department of Rehabilitation Sciences (RS) was held on the morning of 28th August 2019, marking the beginning of a new academic life for a new cohort of students. Over 200 guests, comprising the government officials, scolarship donors, clinical educators, RS academic staff and students, attended the Ceremony. Addressing the Ceremony, Prof. Hector Tsang (Cally Kwong Mei Wan Professor in Psychosocial Health, Chair Professor of Rehabilitation Sciences and Head of RS) began his speech by extending a warm welcome to all of the newly admitted physiotherapy and occupational therapy students. He was glad to share the incredible JUPAS admission figures of this year that remain marvelous and outstanding as always, with almost 40 freshmen scoring 36 of above in their best six subjects in HKDSE. Despite of the outstanding results, he hoped that the freshmen could stay humble and never be complacent of themselves. He also advised them to expose themselves to the opportunities of learning outside Hong Kong, given the fact that RS has established numerous prestigious partners with overseas and Chinese Mainland universities on clinical placement. Prof. Tsang then presented some updates on the completion of new teaching and research facilities in the near future, which include three new teaching and research laboratories, new campus in Homantin and a new Rehabilitation Clinic. On behalf of RS, he would like to express his sincere thanks to the support of PolyU management and the HKSAR government, especially the Food and Health Bureau. We were honoured to have the presence of Dr Chui Tak-yi (Under Secretary for Food and Health of Food and Health Bureau, HKSAR) as our officiating guest and to give us a speech. Dr Chui addressed the problem of a shortage of manpower in rehabilitation sector in Hong Kong and he was glad to see the admission of elite students who decide to serve the Hong Kong community as physiotherapists and occupational therapists in the coming years. He wished the freshmen a fruitful and enjoyable university life in RS. Followed by a series of prize presentations to both the awarded teaching staff and top students, Prof. Hector Tsang made a closing remark with warm congratulations to the recently promoted staff members and a vote of thanks to all the guests who attended the Ceremony.

“In Serving, We Learn!” PolyU RS Hospital-Community Rehabilitation Conference, Kunming 2019

PolyU RS has jointly organized with Yunnan Association of Rehabilitation Medicine to hold the Hospital Community Rehabilitation Conference in Kunming on 24-25th August, 2019 with the theme - “To nurture future community rehabilitation professionals”. Prof. Hector Tsang, Cally Kwong Mei Wan Professor in Psychosocial Health, Chair Professor and Head of Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, PolyU delivered a keynote speech to introduce the historical and latest development of community rehabilitation in Hong Kong and shared his valuable vision with audiences on the opportunities for community rehabilitation professionals in Greater Bay Area. Led by Prof. Cecilia Li-Tsang, Mr Tony Wong and Mr Tang Kin-Chung, the “PolyU RS Community Rehabilitation Educational Model Building Team” shared their experience in providing rehabilitation services within the community after disasters with an ultimate goal - to establish a new and sustainable clinical training model not only to nurture future rehabilitation but also to establish a yardstick of quality to serve the vast amount disables in the community across the Chinese mainland. This is a massive collaboration project with five universities including Capital Medical University, Kunming Medical University, Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Sichuan University and Shanghai of University Traditional Chinese Medicine. The dedicated “We Care We Share” PolyU RS Occupational Therapy student service-learning team presented their previous community service works in Yunnan, sharing their fruitful and satisfying learning experiences. They have invited a group of their service users onto stage sharing their changes in life that touched audiences hearts. PolyU RS, with the teaching faculties and student service-learning teams have been dedicated to serve and support the development of community rehabilitation ever since the devastating Wenchuan Earthquake in 2008. They are passionate to devote their professional skills and knowledge to promote physical and psycholsocial health and to maximize function for persons with disabilities in the community. The project team is working on more extensive collaborations across allied health disciplines, and even across professionals in engineering and designs from local to overseas in the future, achieving the goal of "In Serving, We Learn".

OTSA Elite Occupational Therapist Taster Programme (EOTTP) 2019

Members of Occupational Therapy Student Ambassador (OTSA) has been striving their best to organize various activities for Occupational Therapy (OT) students to broaden their horizons and for the general public to promote OT profession. With secondary school students being one of the major targets of promotion, they organised Elite Occupational Therapist Taster Programme (EOTTP). With the enormous support from the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences (RS), EOTTP was successfully held on 6 July 2019 at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU). Over 100 aspiring participants from more than 40 top secondary schools in Hong Kong have joined on this special occasion. After the opening speech given by Dr Andy Cheng (Associate Professor of RS), a kick-off ceremony was done to announce the commencement of the activity. In order to give the participants an overview of OT beforehand, we have invited Mr Tony Wong (Clinical Associate of RS) to have a brief sharing about OT and PolyU OT Programme. After the sharing, the participants were divided into small groups led by OT students and began their one-day experience as an Occupational Therapist. In order to provide a thorough view on the roles and expertise of Occupational Therapists, we have prepared laboratory tours and hands-on experience for the participants. By visiting the teaching classrooms, participants could develop basic understanding about home modification, remedial activities and some common musculoskeletal disorders. On the other hand, we have introduced several OT concepts and models, including 8 areas of occupation and Person-Environment-Occupation Model. With these concepts, participants were encouraged to think as an Occupational Therapist and work on some simple case analysis. It is hoped that the secondary school students could develop a clear picture of OT through this one-day programme. Although EOTTP is the last event organised by OTSA in the academic year 2018-2019, OTSA would continue to promote our profession through different activities in the future.

Physiotherapy Summer Programme 2019

PolyU Summer Programme 2019 – Physiotherapy (PT) was successfully held on 27 June 2019 with over 80 secondary five students from top local secondary schools. The programme aims to enhance the understanding of anatomy for physiotherapy practice. Dr Billy So, Assistant Professor (PT), welcomed the participants and introduced the content of the programme. In order to let the participants to warm up and get to know each other, current PT students from Physiotherapy Students’ Society (PSS) led the ice-breaking activities after the opening speech. After the ice-breaking activities, participants were divided into 4 groups to take turns to attend different mini-lecture sessions, which were: "Anatomy and Physiology of cardiorespiratory system" by Dr Alex Cheung (Research Assistant Professor, PT);  "Functional Anatomy in Lower Limb" by Dr Billy So (Assistant Professor, PT); "Human Anatomy: Facilities and Learning experience" by Dr Stanley Winser (Assistant Professor, PT); and "Fundamental neuroscience research using animal models" by Dr Sonata Yau (Assistant Professor, PT) respectively. The participants enjoyed the mini-lecture sessions since they can experience the mock class of PT programmge. At the end of the programme, Dr Billy So shared the information about admission requirements, course content and career perspective of PT programme.

Occupational Therapy Student Ambassador (OTSA) Young Professional Exchange Program 2019

In the Young Professional Exchange Program, our group of 30 occupational therapy students went to Chiang Mai and Bangkok in Thailand for a week to learn about the practice of OT there. We visited the facilities in the Faculty of Associated Medical Sciences in CMU, the Industrial Rehabilitation Northern Centre, the Rajanagarindra Institute of Child Development, and the Christian Care Foundation for Children with Disabilities. An overall observation is that Chiang Mai has larger physical space for practice, and thus allows a more immersive experience for rehab patients. For example, the Rajanagarindra Institute of Child Development is a large building shaped like a gigantic piano, in which children can receive therapy in well-decorated sensory integration and relaxation rooms, and start vocational training in the simulated settings. Furthermore, the cultural factor of rehabilitation methods is also prominent in their practice. The Industrial Rehabilitation Northern Centre includes the production of silkscreen painting, glass etching and Lanna art as part of vocational rehab. Lanna is a type of three-dimensional art only found in Northern Thailand, where one uses hammer and nails to sculpt an image that protrudes out of a silver or aluminum sheet. It makes us wonder what local art forms can be used therapeutically back home. We also paid a visit to the Elephant Conservation Center located in Lampang to learn about Elephant-Assisted Therapy for children with Autism and Down Syndrome. All the fun aside, we also experienced the abstract feeling of human-animal bond that is used in animal-assisted therapy - the sense of calmness and wonder that is intrinsic in humans is a magical feeling. Knowing that enthusiastic practitioners are making the best of this natural marvel in OT practice, we leave Thailand a little more knowledgeable and a immensely more inspired.