6^th Winner | Dr. Ho Lam

Dr. Ho Lam is an energetic, diligent and unbeatable interventional cardiologist craving for innovative and practical approaches that lead to better outcome sin cardiovascular interventions.

As soon as he completed his fellowship in Hong Kong, he won the sponsorship of The Ho Hung-Chiu Medical Foundation to go abroad to broaden his experience at Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV) in Switzerland, and Semmelweis University Heart Center in Hungary, as well as Asan Medical Center in South Korea via CardioVascular Research Foundation (CVRF).

He currently serves as consultant interventional cardiologist and director of cardiac catheterization laboratory in Tuen Mun Hospital. Dr. Lam received the Young Achiever Award in 2018 awarded by the Hospital Authority for his contribution in cardiac service development for New Territory West Cluster (NTWC) public hospitals in Hong Kong and Exemplary Teacher Award by faculty of medicine, Chinese University of Hong Kong for his teaching. In cardiac intervention, he has been invited as faculty, speaker and panelist in various international conferences and won numerous best case awards, including TCTAP 2015, ECC 2015, ECC 2017, and many more. He was elected as chairman for Tuen Mun Hospital Doctor’s Association in 2017 and 2018.

Interview with Dr. Ho Lam

Q1) Everyone would be impressed with your ample experience of studying abroad. Would you tell us about how you have gained such great experience abroad?
My road is too hard and non-reproducible. I’d like to thank everyone who has helped me in the past and encouraged my heart to go on, especially Dr. Anshul Kumar Jain, Dr. Evald Hoj Christiansen, Dr. Eric Eeckhout and Dr. Yam PW. The key is in this quote by Dr. Anshul. ”In the age of dreaming, it is not the time to choose comfortable life or money and Never, Never, Never give up!”

Q2) You have given great support to the TCTAP meetings. Which aspect of this meeting keeps on attracting your attention?
TCTAP allows you to learn the most updated knowledge through presentations and LIVE demonstrations, to share your most interesting work and to network with giants and fellows at the same time. Complex PCI is also a good meeting, too.

Q3) Your works have won many awards in various competitions. What do you think is the most important thing in giving an award-winning presentation?
The panelists and judges are very experienced physicians. You should focus on clearly presenting the innovative idea or learning points behind your case that could help to solve challenging clinical scenarios or dilemma instead of the case itself, so that everyone will be inspired by your presentation.

Q4) Your reformed program reduced the mor tality in acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients. What important modifications of the program brought such a good result?
First of all, this is the work of the whole team including all doctors and nurses in cardiac, A&E and medical, as well as supporting staff and administration. The medical system in Hong Kong is very efficient but complicated. AMI service is currently underdeveloped due to lack of resources and manpower, and system defects. Issues on resources are particularly problematic in NTWC. The most important things in reform are the correct direction and strategy in execution. Our directions are:

1. Settle non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) and STEMI at the same time, as the mortality is the same and NSTEMI patients are more common than STEMI patients.
2. Face reality to build a tailor-made system based on available resources. For execution strategy, we believe the dual approach of “system and skill” is the key to making difference in terms of mortality rate. We used the system-and-skill dual approach to improve PCI coverage, centralization, and coordination via EDIC team.

The road is still long. We will work hard for better care and cure for patients. I’d like to extend my gratitude again for the unconditional support from all seniors, juniors, nursing, medical and A&E.

Q5) Which areas of interventional cardiology are you pursuing in the future?
I will pursue teaching the younger generation cardiologist as it is the key to sustainability and advancement in service, which needs effort from generations to generations. After all these years, I found that “system and skill” were the most important in interventional cardiology. I will further polish the system and at the same time, I will improve my skills continuously so that all crazy cases and complications can be settled uneventfully. Finally, I want to develop new tools in cardiovascular interventions and collect data to prove some new ideas.