With over 50,000 graduates trained across various healthcare professions over the years, PolyU has been instrumental in supporting the development of Hong Kong’s medical system and is a leader in health science education and research both locally and internationally.

Recently, the Health and Medical Research Fund (HMRF), established by the Health Bureau in 2011 to enhance the health system, awarded 16 PolyU projects in its 2022 funding exercise, with the funding amount totalling HK$14.3 million. This recognition reaffirms PolyU’s research excellence in medical, healthcare, and social science-related fields and its strengths in providing holistic solutions to complex health challenges.

The funded projects cover a wide range of disciplines, including nursing care, rehabilitation sciences, health technology and informatics, optometry, biomedical engineering, and biology and chemical technology. These projects showcase the University’s strong interdisciplinary expertise in medical technology and social applications, developing innovative solutions to address dynamic healthcare challenges and benefitting the physical health and well-being of patients, medical professionals, and caregivers.

In the field of nursing, PolyU’s funded projects explore diverse topics, including music-with-movement training for people with cognitive frailty, mountain craft training to improve the psychological well-being of children with cancer, mindfulness-based intervention for caregivers of people with dementia, as well as robot-mediated interactive intervention for the elderly living alone.

Research in health technology and informatics focuses on advancing disease diagnosis and management empowered by cutting-edge technology and artificial intelligence (AI). Ongoing projects span a range of areas, including thyroid dysfunctions, the transmission of foodborne antimicrobial resistance in Hong Kong, type 2 diabetes, early-pregnancy prediction of preeclampsia, and an AI-empowered pulmonary perfusion imaging technique for lung cancer.

In rehabilitation sciences, research covers diabetic management, online exercise programmes for older people with chronic low back pain, addressing insomnia in the older population, and specific dance intervention to reduce the risk of falls in older adults. The research outcomes aim to tackle pressing healthcare challenges posed by a rapidly ageing population.

Click here to view the list of PolyU projects funded by HMRF 2022.