Dr. Jimmy Chan

President, HKACCM | Regional Director (HK) AHLS, USA | Course Director, ICCTM, USA

Conflict and Catastrophe Medicine (CCM) is something new in the world. The Society of Apothecaries (SOA) of London had set up the Faculty of Conflict and Catastrophe Medicine in April 2005 and was formally launched by London Mayor. Now they also have master and doctorate qualification for Conflict and Catastrophe Medicine. CCM is a very wide topic and cover almost everything related to natural and man-made disaster. Natural disaster like tsunami, hurricane, and earthquake cause thousands of injuries and death. Man-made disaster like wars, demonstrations, terrorism, accidental or intentional chemical release of toxic substances can also result in many morbidity and mortality. Although Hong Kong is a relatively safe place, we do have typhoon attack, violent demonstration like 6th Ministerial Conference of World Trade Organization (WTOMC6) and technological disasters.

In cases of large scale disaster, be it a natural or man-made, team approach is the best solution to fix the problem. Doctors, nurses, paramedics, disciplined forces, administrators and public safety agencies should work together. This approach is well demonstrated in WTOMC6, where the policemen, medical team, paramedics, fire fighters, and many organizations worked together to meet the challenge. Traditionally medical academic association is specialty base like emergency medicine, surgery, orthopedics, intensive care etc. However, our association tries to bring not only the doctors, nurses from different medical specialties together, but also paramedics and disciplined forces like policemen to work as a team to offer the best possible care in the austere environment.

Our association will uphold the standard of CCM training in Hong Kong. We shall host international conferences in Hong Kong and offering a platform for the world experts to share their experiences. We shall play and advisory role and try to formulate strategies for prevention, preparedness, response and recovery so as to make Hong Kong better prepared in cases of disaster incidents.