18 May 2017
Dr Hoi Yee Kwan, known as Candy, an Associate Consultant currently working in the Department of Respiratory Medicine, Kowloon Hospital, Hong Kong, has been awarded a 3-month fellowship by the European Respiratory Society to work with Dr William Man, based at Harefield Hospital. She will be attached to the Harefield Pulmonary Rehabilitation (PR) team and the Harefield Muscle Laboratory, which Dr Man leads.
Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Trust is one of the leading specialist respiratory hospitals in Europe and hosts the UK’s largest single-site PR programme, with over 1200 referrals every year. The award demonstrates the attraction of the Trust for international visitors wishing to carry out high-quality research.
Candy’s project will investigate cachexia (wasting syndrome) in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients. The research aims to answer three main questions:
- how prevalent is cachexia in a cohort of stable COPD patients
- what is the impact of cachexia on the patient’s functional and health status?
- how does cachexia respond to PR?
She said: “I am keen to use the fellowship to explore how a large, research-oriented multidisciplinary PR programme is set-up and run in the UK, and I’m also looking forward to seeing how PR can be delivered in different settings, such as in the community or at home. Dr Man is an eminent figure in the PR field and his research team has published widely and has a stellar international profile. I am delighted to have this opportunity to work with the team.”
After the placement Candy will return to the Kowloon Hospital and intends to conduct further research in this area with Chinese COPD patients, and try to replicate/adapt the Harefield pulmonary rehabilitation model for her local clinical practice. We wish her the best of luck for a very successful visit!