Mr Ki Sum Samson Wong, Assistant Lecturer in the Medical Ethics and Humanities Unit of the School of Clinical Medicine of the LKS Faculty of Medicine at HKU, was recently awarded "Most Innovative Teacher of the Year" in Asia by Times Higher Education (THE).
Mr Ki Sum Samson Wong, Assistant Lecturer in the Medical Ethics and Humanities Unit of the School of Clinical Medicine of the LKS Faculty of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), was recently awarded "Most Innovative Teacher of the Year" in Asia by Times Higher Education (THE). This historic achievement marks him as the first-ever recipient of an individual award at the THE Awards Asia.
Wong's innovative teaching incorporates the use of the video game, "That Dragon, Cancer", in medical training. It was created by a pair of bereaved parents of a five-year-old patient who had been diagnosed with atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumour (AT/RT), a rare but aggressive form of brain cancer. Since 2022, Wong has incorporated the immersive experience of this game into his medical humanities classes for second-year Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) students, prompting them to "step into the shoes" of family caregivers of terminally ill patients to experience the agonising pain of "anticipatory grief" early in medical school. The learning experience is followed by two debriefing group discussions over a four-month period.
In post-class surveys, 89 per cent of the students rated the method highly effective in enhancing their understanding of the complex manifestations of anticipatory grief in end-of-life care. Last year, Wong's pedagogy was published in the journal Medical Education.
The THE judges praised Wong's initiative, noting that "anticipatory grief" is a "highly important challenge" in medicine, which is often given insufficient attention in medical curricula. They highlighted the long-term positive impact of using digital-visual technology to engage medical students early in their education and training.
"My teaching development was propelled by the story of a family caregiver being overwhelmed by extreme grief and guilt after bearing witness to the torment that his late-stage cancer-stricken wife had faced and stretched to the breaking point because of the then hospital visitation restrictions owing to the COVID pandemic,' said Wong. 'Since then, I have dedicated myself to designing grief literacy training in the medical humanities curriculum, to equip my students with the insights and professional aspirations needed to help alleviate the grief of family members of dying patients. I am grateful that the THE judging panel spoke highly of my teaching practice."
