The issue
Cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and stroke are a few of the many public health concerns among Hong Kong’s ageing population. There is an imminent call for effective health screening and monitoring to alert and inform the general public of health risks and make lifestyle changes for better health. Current screening tools are often cumbersome, for instance drawing blood samples or collecting body fluids, not to mention long waiting hours before results are revealed and collected. Some of these screening tools are expensive, while others require specialised personnel who are outnumbered by the demand.
The solution
The eye is the window to the soul. It also tells about our health conditions. While traditional physicians see patients to assess their health, the team has now developed a risk assessment tool – automatic retinal imaging analysis (ARIA) – with an algorithm that does the job of the expert eye. Fully automatic, non-invasive and simple to use, the tool generates risk estimates on stroke and other blood vessel related diseases by taking a picture of the rear of the eye. The results are ready in 2-3 minutes. Via this outreach programme, the team offers screening services with their tool as well as health talks in the community and at elderly centres, alerting people to prevent the aforementioned chronic diseases by subsequent changing of diet, exercise and medication.
Impact
Waking up to their own health condition, people are more aware of their own health risks and better educated in order to make informed decision to improve their physical well-being.
Beneficiaries
– 1142 programme participants
– 777 participants receiving ARIA assessments
Project Team
Benny has a strong interest in various aspects of multi-centre clinical trials, including statistical methods, data management, drug and medical device development. On the methodological side, he is active in biostatistics research, especially in the area of clinical trials design, bioinformatics, quality of life, data & safety monitoring, and other statistical issues. He has ample experience in the development of efficient data management procedures using advanced computer technology, plus working with the industry to design and to carry out clinical trials that satisfy both academic interest and industry objectives. He is well versed in the development of research infrastructure such as Ethics Committee, GCP Centre and quality assurance team to carry out clinical research in hospitals that meet regulatory and international requirements. Benny is also active in medical device development, most notably in “automatic retinal imaging analysis (ARIA)” and serves in the Centre for Entrepreneurship of CUHK. He has published over 250 international peer-reviewed journal articles and has served in various committees including advisory committees for drug development and data & safety monitoring committees for international drug trials.
