LKS Medical Faculty MEHU
HKU MEHU
Director’s Message

Director’s Message

Director’s Message

Welcome to the website of Medical Ethics and Humanities and Unit (MEHU).

In 1977, the philosopher Ivan Illich commented on the restricted function of professions in society. In an interview, Illich remarked on the embodied practice of a physician, ‘They brought the patient to the hospital and, with their newly discovered diagnostic methods, they established a chart. They then treated the chart; they changed its parameters. When the chart was healthy, frequently without looking at the guy, they told him to put on his shoes and go home…’. This is the image of a physician that modern medical educators have been attempting to critique.

MEHU is a small academic unit born out of the Medical Humanities and Medical Ethics & Law curricula. Its curriculum found its way into the new MBBS programme as part of the Hong Kong-wide tertiary educational reform, resulting in the development of a six-year compulsory, longitudinal course that explores issues of the ‘neglected curriculum’, frequently untaught in medical schools.

In 2018, the first cohort of students who experienced the entire new curricula graduated. Inevitably, we face an ever-changing society, which challenges us to experiment with new approaches and identify emerging areas that are critical to nurturing young medical professionals of the future, both in Hong Kong and beyond.

 

Julie CHEN

May 2021