Hong Kong's pathway for doctors may boost innovation

It could also stretch already limited resources in the short run.

Hong Kong’s dual-track pathway for doctors that lets them split time between treating patients, teaching, and research is expected to bridge looming manpower gaps and boost medical innovation.

The programme seeks to nurture more medical talent and encourage hospitals to integrate clinical work with academic development, Health Secretary Lo Chung-mau told Healthcare Asia.

“A doctor's clinical work is inextricably linked with teaching and research,” he said in an emailed reply to questions. “More clinical experiences can also be translated into new studies.”

The programme was unveiled late last year and will be supported by public health research funding, including resources earmarked for infectious disease studies. Doctors accepted into the pathway will be given protected time to engage in academic work at the University of Hong Kong or the Chinese University of Hong Kong, while continuing their clinical duties at public hospitals.

While the initiative is expected to improve the city’s medical capacity in the long term, experts said it could stretch already limited resources in the short run.

Hong Kong is projected to face a shortage of more than 1,500 doctors by 2030, according to government estimates.

“With doctors required to spend at least 30% of their time on teaching and research, they would need to reduce the time spent in the hospital,” Shin Thant Aung, director at consultancy YCP Solidiance, said via Microsoft Teams.

He added that hospitals should also prepare for higher salaries and administrative costs during the early years of implementation, before research grants and overseas recruitment can help ease the financial pressure.

To manage the impact, the Hospital Authority will phase in the programme rather than enrolling all eligible doctors at once. “Scaling up will require a balance between clinical service and academic commitment,” Aung said.

Hospitals may also need to adjust how they allocate staff and assess performance once the dual-track model is in place, according to Dicky Chow, head of healthcare and social innovation at Our Hong Kong Foundation.

“They will need to move beyond focusing solely on patient outcomes,” he said via Zoom. He added that hospitals could get more funding if they link research projects closely to operations, whilst creating dedicated administrative teams to support doctors. Performance reviews, he said, should reward both clinical and academic contributions.

Chow also cited the need to revise medical curricula to integrate research training more systematically. “Unless a student chooses it, they are not equipped with essential research skills,” he said. “A revised curriculum could therefore better support this dual pathway.”

Lo said the government would monitor the programme rollout before deciding whether to expand it to more hospitals and specialities. “We will keep the measure under review,” he said.

Experts remain cautious about extending the approach to other health professions. Aung said the model might not work as effectively for nurses, whose workloads leave little space for research.

Even so, Chow said small-scale efforts already exist in nursing and allied health programmes. “In the long term, there is clear potential for them to follow a dual track as well,” he said. “By collaborating with universities, they could take it further.”