Academic and Professional Qualifications

Contact Information

Tel.: (852) 2873 3093

Biography

Alex is a neurologist and working as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Medicine and Therapeutics of the Faculty of Medicine, CUHK. He is also the Associate Director and Convener (Neuroscience) of the Hong Kong Institute of Integrative Medicine of CUHK. After receiving undergraduate education in biochemistry at the University of Chicago in 1998, Alex returned to Hong Kong and obtained his medical degree from CUHK in 2003, followed by physician training in internal medicine and neurology at the Prince of Wales Hospital, the teaching hospital of CUHK. He was awarded the gold medal of Best Thesis Award by the Hong Kong College of Physicians in 2010. In 2011, he went to the University of California San Francisco for post-doctoral fellowship as a recipient of Croucher Foundation Fellowship and CUHK Henry Leung Fellowship. Alex joined CUHK Faculty of Medicine in 2015 and his research focuses on stroke, multiple sclerosis, and integrative medicine.

At the Hong Kong Institute of Integrative Medicine (HKIIM), Alex is developing integrative care models and exploring evidence-based treatment for neurological diseases through big-data analytics and pragmatic clinical trials. He has been working closely with TCM informatics (iTCM) team at the University of Sydney on big-data research in stroke. Through building a team of clinician-engineer-scientists, and integrating big-data analytics, biostatistics, informatics in a multidisciplinary team-approach, he has focused on identifying new treatment approach and understanding of diseases for synergistic development of Chinese and Integrative medicine. He was instrumental in the establishment of the joint big-data laboratory with the School of Information Technologies of the University of Sydney, known as Analytic and Clinical Cooperative Laboratory in Integrative Medicine (ACCLAIM). ACCLAIM has continued to extend her collaboration with international counterparts, which include the School of Computer Science at the University of Manchester, UK, as well as The China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences (CACMS) in Beijing, China.

Research Interests

• Clinical distinction and management for multiple sclerosis and neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder, including integrating traditional Chinese medicine and western medicine for managing fatigue and cognitive deficits
• Data analytics and evidence synthesis in integrative medicine, as lead physician and co-director of joint big-data laboratory for integrative medicine research with the University of Sydney
• Stroke and intracranial atherosclerosis - risk stratification and integrative medicine for stroke prognosis and recovery.

Honorary Appointments in Other Professional Activities

• Honorary Senior Lecturer, School of Information Technologies, Faculty of Engineering and IT, The University of Sydney, Australia

Awards

• Most Promising Young Researcher Awards (2019)
• Best free-paper presentation, Hong Kong Neurological Society Annual Scientific Meeting (2007, 2009, 2011)
• Young Physician's Scholarship, World Stroke Organization (2010)
• Gold Medal of Best Thesis Award, Hong Kong College of Physicians (2010)
• Croucher Foundation Fellowship (2011)
• Young Investigator Research Grant, Hong Kong College of Physicians (2013)
• Best free-paper prize, 14th Asian and Oceanic Congress of Neurology (2014)

Selected Publications