Prof. Wah-Kit Lam

Prof. Lam

Prof Lam Wah-kit is held in high esteem in the medical community in Hong Kong for his immense contributions in laying solid foundations for postgraduate subspecialty training in internal medicine, not least in respiratory medicine. Prof Lam graduated from medical school at The University of Hong Kong in 1972, and soon joined his alma mater as a young Lecturer. Since the early 1980s, after receiving training in respiratory medicine locally and in London, England and in Denver, USA, he engaged in research in lung cancer, and published widely on its epidemiology, genetics and chemotherapy – the latter at a time when a relatively passive view of lung cancer treatment prevailed. He became Chief of Respiratory & Critical Care Medicine at the University Department of Medicine, Queen Mary Hospital, between 1989-2007; and also served as the Head of Medicine in 2001–2004.

Prof Lam was a key member of the core group of pulmonologists which led the establishment of local respiratory societies in the 1980s – these professional societies became the nidus of continuing professional development for future generations of respiratory specialists. He served as the Founding Honourary Secretary of the Hong Kong Thoracic Society in 1987 and was its President in 1989–1991. He then became the Founding Chairman of the Hong Kong Lung Foundation in 1996. Beyond the scope of the respiratory discipline, he contributed substantially to the development of structured higher subspecialty postgraduate training in the Hong Kong College of Physicians in the early days of its establishment in the late 1980s, and was the Founding Chairman of the Specialty Board in Respiratory Medicine for ten years from 1993. He designed and developed the format for training programmes and assessments, which constitute the backbone of structured post graduate training. He was Vice President in External Affairs of the College in 2004–2010, and has been the international advisor for Hong Kong in the Royal Colleges of Physicians in UK up till the present.

Prof Lam was also a core member of the APSR Executive Committee since the inception of the Society in 1988, and served as its President in 2002–2004. In acknowledgement of his numerous contributions to APSR and to the development of respiratory medicine in the Asia-Pacific region, he was awarded the APSR Medal in 2018.

Despite his official retirement at the University in 2008, he has remained an enthusiastic teacher of medical students as Emeritus Professor in Medicine. He still maintains an avid interest in the activities of the respiratory community.

Prof Lam is well known among colleagues for his stoic perseverance and wise counsel through troubled waters. It is indeed timely to pay tribute to him for his dedication and contributions which have far reaching impact upon medical professional training, and hence the community we serve, in Hong Kong and beyond.