Ready for next steps - Western News - University of Western Ontario

Alumni
Young leader making
public health connections
aT 40, WesTern alumnus dr.
Gabriel leung heads the School of
Public Health at the university of
Hong Kong (uHK), where he has been
a tenured professor since age 34.
After graduating from Western
with his Md in 1996, he went on to
earn a masters of public health from
Harvard university and an Md from
uHK, where he joined the faculty as a
27-year-old professor. He has established
and directed the school’s Infectious
disease epidemiology Group
since the 2003 SArS epidemic.
In 2008, leung took a four-year
leave of absence to serve as Hong
Kong’s first
under Secretary
for
Food and
Health and
fifth director
of the
chief execu-
leuNG
tive’s office.
Six months
ago, leung
returned
to uHK, where he assisted with the
merger of the department of Community
Medicine and the School of
Public Health.
leung, who won Western’s Alumni
Award of Merit-Asia in 2007, has
hopes of reconnecting with Western
by establishing collaboration between
his public health program with Western’s
soon-to-arrive School of Public
Health.
Western News reporter Paul Mayne
spoke with leung this week about
his time at Western and the future of
public health.
• • •
WN: You spent the majority of the
early 1990s here at Western. What do
you recall from your time in London?
Gabriel Leung: I still remember the
first day I arrived at Saugeen-Matiland.
I stayed there for three years. It
was then the largest mixed residence
in North America. Not sure if it still is.
WN: Those were the days of ‘The
Zoo.’ That is no longer, but I’m wondering
how a medical student got
any work done at that time?
oh, it’s lost its edge? (laughing.)
I didn’t have much trouble. It was
a very good social and supportive
environment. Contrary to popular
belief, people actually do study and
get some sleep – despite the frequent
fire alarms, which was a bit inconvenient
when the medical school exam
schedule was different that the rest of
the university.
At Western, I started majoring in
Chemistry and minoring in Music. It
was through the Scholar’s elective
program, which was new at the time,
where you could mix and match and
not be bound by traditional disciplinary
boundaries. That was a lot of fun.
I remember doing most of my studying
on scientific subjects in the Music
building. All in all, it was a very good
experience.
“alSo, don’t forGet oUr WorK in health
SyStemS, economicS and policy. We
appreciate health reform doeS not taKe
place in a VacUUm, bUt in indiVidUal
coUntrieS. We can only improVe by
learninG from What happenS throUGh
each other’S experienceS.”
WN: In 2008, you left academia to
take on a new role in government.
Now, you have returned to academia.
Was the plan always to return?
I had been at the university for 10
years when the government came
calling. I told them right from the start
I would be doing only one full-term
(four years) of government, so here I
am back again. I actually never left; I
just took a leave of absence. ... It feels
like being home.
I think the government experience
has been exceptionally enriching
and helped me think from a broader
angle about some of the critical public
health questions that face not just
Hong Kong, but the world, today. It’s
been an absolute synergy in terms of
that experience and what I do now
back at the university.
I think it gives you real-life perspective
into vexed policy questions which,
when viewed from a scientific viewpoint,
gives you a lot more insight
into the sorts of questions one should
be asking.
WN: As the Department of Community
Medicine joins the School
of Public Health at UHK, what are
you hoping to see come from the
school in regards to its teaching and
research surrounding public health?
I look forward to consolidating our
strengths within a new vision for the
future. We will continue to lead the
country in what we have always done
quite well – infectious diseases, in particular
those with major global health
significance such as influenza, handfoot-and-mouth
disease and HPV, and
non-communicable diseases.
We see fairly different patterns of
these chronic diseases in Hong Kong,
China and Asia, as compared to the
West. These epidemiological differences,
we believe, point to underlying
gaps in the scientific mechanisms of
disease causation, or pathology. From
an epidemiological viewpoint, we see
and celebrate these differences and
exploit them to draw out new scientific
insights as far as fundamental
biological pathways, which would ultimately
benefit global health.
Also, don’t forget our work in health
systems, economics and policy. We
appreciate health reform does not
take place in a vacuum, but in individual
countries. We can only improve by
learning from what happens through
each other’s experiences. So this is
kind of experimental learning through
a systematic science of comparative
health systems.
And from my previous conversations
with your president (Amit Chakma) at
Western, we very much hope to work
with Western’s new School of Public
Health (slated to begin in September)
and try and build bridges.
WN: Do you feel the pressure of high
expectations?
I have always been very excited
about returning to the university. Now
that I’ve been back for six months
and putting into action some of these
plans – with some already bearing
fruit – is enormously satisfying. This is
what gives us all the collective drive
to continue to pursue our vision. ultimately,
it’s really when you see your
work resulting in policies that protect
and improves health for whole populations,
not just within Hong Kong, but
well beyond our borders, and you’re
producing graduates who become
leaders in the field; that’s what makes
it all worthwhile.
WN: Your education has taken you
all over – Hong Kong, Canada, the
United States and Great Britain. Has
having these global experiences,
along with the formal education you
received, shaped who you are and
what you hope to bring to your new
position?
I really think the world is a global village,
and this is truer than ever in this
day and age. Not only because we are
so interdependent on each other, but
also because of the means of communication.
I don’t think anybody would
dispute that.
The challenge for us all, including in
academia, is how to leverage on this
new ongoing development – which
is only going to get more intense – to
give the best student experience and
also to make sure we leverage on this
globalization to the best of our advantage
in our research endeavours.
Hong Kong has survived and thrived
on being exactly that – a free port of
what used to be goods and then, laterally,
services, and throughout all that
time, a free port of ideas and people.
I very much look forward to working
together with colleagues at Western,
under the president’s leadership, to
find commonalities and parallels.
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