Why did you choose to work in the Government after graduation?
I wanted to be recognised as a professional biomedical engineer, which means I had to obtain the Corporate Membership of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE) in the biomedical engineering discipline, a qualification which is beneficial to develop an engineering career path. Joining Scheme “A” training would be a fast track to do so.
As a matter of fact, it was during the SARS outbreak when I graduated, and it was a difficult time to look for a job. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to work as a Research Assistant in Ir Professor Yongping Zheng’s laboratory, and I started my part-time postgraduate study for the MPhil degree at that time. Two years later, I noticed there was an opening for the EMSD BME Engineering Graduate Training Scheme, which is the recognised Scheme “A” training by HKIE, so I decided to take a chance to apply for it, and I was lucky enough to have received the job offer.
What are the main job duties of a senior engineer in the government?
I am now a section head and leading a team which consists of seven to eight professional staff to work on assigned tasks. Currently, there is no legislation on medical devices in Hong Kong. A voluntary listing system was launched to enable medical device traders to familiarise with the future mandatory requirements. We therefore promote to adopt and use of listed medical devices in Government and the public hospital. My team focus on the promotion and implementation of voluntary listing systems for medical devices, such as vetting the listing applications, public enquiry handling, health education and publicity on the safe use of medical devices as well as stakeholders engagement, etc.
And when I was in EMSD, I mainly provided services to Hospital Authotiry (HA) and the Department of Health (DH) for supply and installation projects, procurements and maintenance of the medical devices and systems.
What are the challenges you face at work?
To me, the most challenging part is not the engineering knowledge and technique, but the management in people, and I think it applies to all kinds of jobs. Each individual has his/her own characteristics, knowledge and skills. As a management, I have to know how to manage the subordinates effectively to complete the assigned tasks within a very short period of time.
What skills/attributes are prerequisite for your job?
The engineering knowledge in the medical devices themselves is necessary for my job. And the knowledge in the regulations about the medical devices are also important, not only those in Hong Kong, but in other jurisdictions as well, such as mainland China, Australia, Canada, European Countries, Singapore, the United States, in order to make comparisons and references.
Furthermore, interpersonal skill is essential for this job. Internally, I have to communicate with my superiors, colleagues and subordinates. Some of my superiors are medical doctors or administrative officers, I therefore need to convey the concerns and ideas to them from an engineer’s perspective, enabling them to make informed decisions. This is a challenging part as my superiors would have concerns over resources, policy making, etc., while I would have my considerations over the engineering aspects. It is good that people with different professional backgrounds to work as a team to generate different ideas. We can extract the best ideas and strike a balance among all these aspects through effective communication. And externally, I deal with the medical device traders, and work with other Government Bureaux and Departments regarding legislation.
How does your job give you a sense of achievement?
For my current job, I always have engagement with the medical device traders to explain the policy or new initiatives to them. I am grateful that they are willing to share their difficulties with me to work out the solutions to overcome the difficulties. I think I could attribute this to the interpersonal skill I just mentioned. As a regulator, we have to act as a facilitator and connector to assist the traders to comply with the regulations more easily.
I also want to share a story when I worked at EMSD, where I provided engineering management for the hospitals. Once, there was a sudden power loss for a medical device during a surgery which lasted a few seconds. We spent abundant time to investigate the incident. Eventually, we found out that it was caused by the construction problem which could be traced back to the time when the hospital building was built. My team then prepared the proposal to manage the problem and conducted the improvement work. We also assisted the HA management to explain the cause to the clinical users, i.e. the medical doctors, who were unsatisfied with the problem. The plan to improve the electrical systems of the whole building lasted for several months, and we especially focused on the operating theatres and some essential medical devices. Afterwards, the management of the hospital invited other HA colleagues who were responsible for the design of hospital buildings to learn from this incident. Now, some of the new hospitals are making reference to the improvement plan in their design, which gave me a great sense of achievement as I managed to help the hospitals to prevent such incident from happening in the future.
