The Hong Kong College of Anaesthesiologists

My sincere thanks to the support of all fellows and members of the college, as well as all council members, for me to have this opportunity to be President of the Hong Kong College of Anaesthesiologists. The “mission” of the college, written in the college webpage, is to ensure the quality of our specialists through training, examination, certification, continuing medical education, accreditation and other related activities. Since founded in 1989, the college has been a leader in patient safety, quality improvement and medical education. We should all be deservedly proud of those achievements. However, we are facing major changes in our society especially in the last few years. Those changes are imposing major challenges to our systems. On the other hand, insecurity could bring about a sense of urgency which may drive changes and improvements. “It was the best of time, it was the worst of time,….it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” I think we should reflect on those words of Charles Dickens in The Tales of Two Cities and see how we can make this the best of our time and our spring of hope.

Dr Hing-yu SO
President
2021

Opening and Welcome

Good evening, all our distinguished guests, presidents/representatives from our partner colleges, council members, fellow anaesthesiologists, friends, new, to-be-admitted fellows of the Hong Kong College of Anaesthesiologists, and your beloved family members. Let me start by offering each of you my heartfelt congratulations.

Congratulating Graduates

Tonight is not just a celebration of passing your exams and completed your training, but is a celebration of your hard work, your sleep deprivation, your perseverance, throughout the past six years.

But mind you, conferment is never the end of a journey. It is the beginning of a lifelong career challenges; it is a transition from supervised practice to the full responsibilities of professional life as specialists in anaesthesiology.

So today, I would like to centre this welcome message around two themes that guide me through my entire career, and also the themes that speak directly to the future you are about to shape:
1. Professionalism (專業精神)
2. Sense of Crisis (行業危機感), in the era of challenging health economics and the impact of Artificial Intelligence

1st Theme: Professionalism (專業精神)

The Hong Kong Academy of Medicine (HKAM) defines professionalism through the lens of its Code of Professional Conduct, emphasizing that a physician must always exercise independent professional judgment, uphold the highest standards of conduct, and put the patient’s interests above all else.

The Meaning of Professionalism in Anaesthesiology
Two important characteristics of our work:

• Anaesthesia is often described as 70% boredom and 30% excitement.
• Much of our best work is invisible to the public. Very few patients remember our names. Many may thank their surgeons, but not the team that kept them alive.

But it is this nature of our work that demands excellence “even when nothing happens—the surgery is uneventful, and the patient is stable”.

Professionalism in the context of anaesthesiology is precisely what transforms this anonymity into strength.

Professionalism is not about recognition—it is about commitment.

Professionalism in anaesthesiology is our commitment to:

1. Mastery of knowledge and craftsmanship
2. Efficiency with zero compromise on quality & safety
3. Ethical responsibility to our patients
4. Integrity

• It is doing the right thing when no one is watching.
• It is (the courage to) speak up when something feels wrong.
• It is standing firm when patient safety is compromised—even when it is inconvenient.

5. Humanity

• Remember: You are treating a patient, not a disease.

2nd Theme: Specialty’s “Sense of Crisis” (行業危機感)

A few things are quietly brewing over the recent years:

1. Escalating healthcare cost and its economic burden on healthcare system.
2. Demand-supply imbalance in the number of anaesthesiologists that results in service inefficiency and frustrations by the broader healthcare system.
3. Impact of A.I. in the healthcare system.

The public at large, especially the broader healthcare system, is seeking healthcare solutions to improve anaesthesia access at reduced cost. These emerging healthcare solutions, together with the impact of AI, may radically change operative anaesthesia and reshape anaesthesia delivery.

In other words, anaesthesiology is facing a looming paradigm shift driven by economic and systemic pressures. Therefore, if we, anaesthesiologists remain passive and in status quo, these emerging solutions will redefine perioperative care—potentially marginalizing our specialty.

In my humble opinion, the future belongs to those who can show added and measurable value across the entire perioperative continuum — i.e. outcome-driven and value-based practice.

Therefore, I would like to urge our new fellows:

1. Shift from reactive to proactive in facing all these new challenges: Anaesthesiologists must actively shape emerging models of perioperative care rather than adhere passively to what have been shaped for you.
2. Expand the perioperative footprint, especially the prehabilitation and extended postoperative care (beyond RR).
3. Strengthen your digital literacy & embrace EB & data-driven practice: Fully utilise your strength in continuous monitoring and physiologic analysis as a competitive advantage.
4. Invest in innovations & research: Move from descriptive to interventional studies that demonstrate measurable value in outcomes and efficiency, invest in basic science and translational research.
5. Act decisively

To survive this very dynamic & challenging healthcare environment tomorrow’s anaesthetist should not simply delivering anaesthesia.

Instead, tomorrow’s anaesthetist must be:

• A perioperative physician who participates in all efforts to facilitate enhanced recovery through the entire patient journey
  • Perform multimodality risk assessment as soon as surgery is contemplated, provide prehabilitation and optimization for risk mitigation well before the surgery
  • Provide precision and personalised anaesthesia intraoperatively by adopting advance monitoring technology, and
  • Provide extended post-anaesthesia recovery care during the most critical part of the recovery period
• A system leader who designs safer workflows and smarter protocols
• A clinician with data literacy who integrates AI tools responsibly
• A guardian of ethics and safety in an increasingly automated environment
• A patient advocate, especially when technology is misused or misunderstood

Conclusion

Tonight is a moment of celebration, and also a moment of reflection. As you step forward as specialists, you join a community built on resilience, professionalism, and an uncompromised commitment to patient care.

Once again, on behalf of the HKCA, I extend my sincere congratulations to, my respect for, and my confidence in each of you.

We look forward to the contributions you will make to the future of anaesthesia in Hong Kong.

Thank you.

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