Primary Care and Valuing Diabetes Care in Hong Kong: Implications for Developing Health Services in Mainland China

China has a relatively weak primary healthcare system as well as the highest absolute disease burden of diabetes in the world, accounting for almost one in three diabetes patients globally. An estimated 74.2% of the 114 million Chinese patients with diabetes are untreated. Extending treatment will add a heavy burden on the health care system. As the most developed Chinese city that spends a modest 5.1% GDP on health with excellent outcomes, Hong Kong may serve as a cost-effective model for strengthening primary  care for chronic disease management, with diabetes care as an example.

In this seminar, Professor Leung will discuss the health system in Hong Kong, the importance of primary care, and recent research assessing the ‘value for money’ of care for all 631,469 patients with diabetes who attended the public sector in Hong Kong between 2006 and 2013.  He argues that the publicly funded and provided integrated model of Hong Kong may serve as a useful value-for-money reference as mainland China scales up to address the national epidemic of chronic disease like diabetes.  

Gabriel Leung became the fortieth Dean of the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine in August 2013. Leung, a clinician and a respected public health authority, concurrently holds the Chair of Public Health Medicine. Previously he was Professor and Head of Community Medicine and served as Hong Kong’s first Under Secretary for Food and Health and fifth Director of the Chief Executive's Office in government.

Leung specialises in the field of public health medicine, a statutorily accredited specialty that covers the full range of public health sciences and their constituent disciplines.

Within the broad scope of public health medicine, his major interests revolve around topics that 1) have major population health impact locally, 2) where Hong Kong is a reliable and unique epidemiologic sentinel for mainland China, or 3) where Hong Kong is particularly endowed and best placed to address the fundamental science at hand. As such his research crosses the traditional boundaries of individual disciplines or fields of enquiry.