A team of four students from the School of Chinese Medicine (SCM) recently won the overall championship in the Hong Kong-Macao team category at the 5th Pan-Pearl River Delta Region Chinese Medicine University Students Clinical Competence Contest held at the Jiangxi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, outshining top students from 13 Chinese medicine tertiary institutions in the Pan-Pearl River Delta Region. With their comprehensive knowledge in Chinese medicine and clinical skills, team members also came first and second in two individual categories, achieving the best-ever results attained by SCM students in this Contest.

The four students of the winning team, Chung Chi-kit, Fang Haoming, Tang Lok-see and Huang Zengxian, demonstrated great teamwork at the contest. This is the third year in a row a team from HKBU claimed the top title. In addition, team member Chung Chi-kit won the first prize in the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) formulae individual category and his peer Fang Haoming came second in the TCM tui na category.

Contestants were tested on a wide range of abilities and skills, such as basic theory and knowledge of Chinese medicine (CM), knowledge of Chinese materia medica, CM formulas, diagnostics (tongue and pulse examination techniques), CM surgery, skills in acupuncture, moxibustion and tui na, clinical consultation and communication skills, emergency treatment skills, and included a role-playing exercise based on an emergency case.

Launched in 2013, the Contest is organised annually by the National Chinese Medicine Teaching Advisory Board of the Ministry of Education with the aim of promoting exchange and the nurturing of CM talents in Hong Kong, Macau and the Chinese mainland. This year the participating institutions included Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Chengdu University of TCM, Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, Guangxi University of Chinese Medicine, Fujian University of TCM, Jiangxi University of TCM, Yunnan University of TCM, Guiyang College of TCM, Guangzhou Medical University, Hainan Medical University, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Macau University of Science and Technology.