Hong Kong faces tremendous societal challenges, including an ageing population, a shortage of healthcare personnel, and rising rates of chronic diseases. Professor Janelle Yorke, who has led the PolyU School of Nursing since January 2024, believes the solution to overcoming these obstacles lies in incorporating STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) learning into the curriculum, and enhancing community and primary health care training.

An internationally renowned nursing visionary, Professor Yorke was awarded the prestigious Global STEM Professorship by the Hong Kong SAR Government in January 2024 – the only nurse to receive this honour. At The Christie NHS Foundation Trust Hospital in the United Kingdom, one of Europe’s largest single-site cancer centres, she pioneered the integration of electronic Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (ePROMs) in routine cancer care.

ePROMs could also benefit other chronic disease patients. “Through electronic platforms, patients can more conveniently report their symptoms and treatment responses, allowing healthcare professionals to instantly access data and use AI to analyse prognostic factors such as treatment completion and survival, thereby adjusting treatment plans and providing more personalised care,” she explained. Building on her UK experience, Professor Yorke is now exploring introducing ePROMs to Hong Kong’s healthcare system for cancer patients.

As part of her STEM professorship, she leads the Jockey Club STEM Lab of Digital Oncology Care Enhancement (DOCE) at PolyU. The lab is building a big data digital platform for a virtual oncology hospital to monitor the toxic symptoms of cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and radiotherapy in real-time. This will support clinical decision-making and improve patient treatment outcomes, completion rates, and survival rates, thereby enhancing patients’ quality of life and healthcare efficiency.

Community nursing is key to primary healthcare

While Professor Yorke is passionate about incorporating digital technologies into healthcare, she remains committed to upholding the School of Nursing’s status as one of the world’s best. It was ranked 31st in the QS World University Rankings by Subject in 2024, an outstanding achievement.

She is also vocal about matching training with the knowledge and skill set of community and primary health care nurses, who are often the backbone of a healthcare system. That calls for a firm focus on enhancing education to better prepare graduates for roles in community and primary healthcare settings. In response to the Hong Kong Government’s expectations and population needs, the School hopes to increase the number of community placements to at least 20% of each student's practice placement time.

“Community nursing is absolutely key to the success of primary healthcare. The nurses we are training now are our future. They will play an important role in helping patients better self-manage and reduce the number of unnecessary hospital admissions,” she said.

To learn more about Professor Yorke’s research and her views, please visit:

South China Morning Post (subscription required)

Sing Tao Daily (subscription required)

The Jockey Club STEM Lab of Digital Oncology Care Enhancement, led by Professor Yorke, is developing a platform to monitor cancer patients’ symptoms in real time.