The issue
Health promotion is the process of empowering people to gain control over their health and its determinants through health literacy efforts and multisectoral action to increase healthy behaviours. This process includes activities for the community-at-large or for populations with an increased risk of negative health outcomes. However, it would be more effective to start educating our younger generation on the importance of lifestyle changes. Engaging our young people in health promotion campaigns would have a long-term benefit to our society.
The solution
The goal of this project is to increase the awareness of brain health in the community by giving individuals and their families a more direct indication of their current brain health status and educational information useful for improving their brain health.
The team trains a group of health ambassadors to communicate with the community about the risks of dementia before symptoms occur. ARIA brain health assessment is offered to participants, especially the high-risk population, to assess their risks of dementia via estimation of white matter hyperintensities (WMH). Since WMH can be altered with the adjustment of lifestyle before symptoms occur, youth health ambassadors will educate participants on ways to improve their lifestyle.
A social network with schools and community centres will be established for the dissemination of brain health information and to increase public engagement. The team also partners with allied health experts to enhance cross-disciplinary cooperation in brain health education.
Impact
The team strives to strengthen public knowledge of brain health via health education activities. Building up a team of young ambassadors to serve relatively underprivileged and hard-to-reach participants, a spirit of mutual help could be cultivated in the neighbourhood.
Beneficiaries
– Youngsters
– Members of the public concerned about brain health
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.
Maria obtained her Bachelor of Nursing Degree from University of Manitoba (Canada) in 1994 and her Master Degree in Public Health from CUHK in 2004. In 2001, she completed training in “Protocol Development and Cancer Epidemiology” at the McGill University (Canada). Maria is a Certified Clinical Research Professional of the Society of Clinical Research Association (SoCRA) in US 2004. She received training on “Practical GCP compliance auditing of trials and system” from DIA in UK. In April 2008, she was accredited as an approved trainer of the Association of Clinical Research Professionals (ACRP) in US, and also served as the By-law Chair of ACRP Asia-Pacific Region Chapter 2012-14. Maria is the primary administrator of the WHO Clinical Trials Partner Registry taking on the lead to meet international standards for the clinical trials registry in Hong Kong, and designed the automatic CCRB CTR computer system. In 2020, she obtained a medical device certificate on Quality Management Systems Auditor for ISO13485 from the Chartered Quality Institute (CQI) and the International Register of Certificated Auditors (IRCA).
