Media

LEADING INTERNATIONAL CENTRE OF NAVIGATIONAL DENTISTRY OPENS

08 Dec 2003

 

Professor J.A. Spinks, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hong Kong (HKU), representing the Vice-Chancellor Professor Lap-chee Tsui, formally opened the International Centre of Navigational Dentistry (ICOND) at a ceremony held at Prince Philip Dental Hospital (PPDH) which houses the HKU Faculty of Dentistry at 9.00 a.m. today (December 8, 2003). The ceremony also marked the start of a Colloquium on Navigational Dentistry in Teaching and Patient Care held under the auspices of the ICOND on December 8 to 9, 2003 at PPDH.

The ceremony was attended by representatives of the four founding Institutional Members of ICOND, viz. Dr. Judith Buchanan from the School of Dental Medicine, the University of Pennsylvania, USA; Professor Ervin Weiss from the School of Dental Medicine, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel; Dr. Marjoke Vervoorn from ACTA, University of Amsterdam and the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; and Professor L.K. Cheung, the Faculty of Dentistry, HKU who is also Director of ICOND. Also present were the representatives of the top five Stomatological Schools in Mainland China which had signed agreements of collaboration with the HKU Dental Faculty, and are also Associate Member Institutions of ICOND. They are Professor Yu Guang-Yan, Dean of the School of Stomatology, Peking University; Professor Zhang Zhi-Yuan, Dean of the School of Stomatology, Shanghai Second Medical University; Professor Wu Yafei, Deputy Dean, College of Stomatology, West China University of Medical Sciences, Sichuan; Professor Zhao Yimin, Deputy Dean, College of Stomatology, Fourth Military Medical Unviersity, Xi'an; and Professor Bian Zhuan, Dean, College of Stomatology, Wuhan University. Each representative made a presentation on his or her own School at the ceremony. Professor Zhang Zhen-kang, President of the Chinese Stomatological Association, was also present. All the above named guests of honour received ICOND plagues of participation as souvenirs from Professor Spinks who performed that presentation after welcoming address by Professor L.K. Cheung the ICOND Director and introductory remarks by Professor F.C. Smales, Dean of the HKU Faculty of Dentistry.
The ICOND is a co-ordinating centre for developments in state-of-the-art virtual reality in navigational dentistry with teaching, research and patient care applications. The HKU Faculty of Dentistry serves with pride as the base for the Centre which boasts the world's largest scale of 30 DentSim virtual reality stations funded by HKU installed in the Faculty's Simulation Laboratory. DentSim is manufactured by DenX Advanced Dental Systems which co-sponsored the Colloquium.

Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs at HKU, Prof. John Spinks, said that he was well aware that dental education at HKU is at the cutting edge of the information and computer technology revolution in education. "Although our recent international review of teaching at HKU has confirmed to us that we were well advanced internationally with out use of Problem Based Learning in education, exemplified by our Dental Faculty, the University is also prepared to invest significant financial resources in further development of our teaching and learning. This Centre is a particularly exciting part of this initiative, showing that we are leading the way in this area of computer technology in dental education and practice. We are very pleased to be able to work with some of the top dental schools around the world, as well as the leading schools on the Mainland, in this venture."

The Colloquium continues on Tuesday, December 8, 2003, beginning with another Opening Ceremony of the Advanced Endodontics Centre at PPDH at 9.00 a.m. by Mr. Thomas Yiu, Deputy Secretary of the Bureau of Health, Welfare and Food. For enquiries please contact Professor L.K. Cheung at (28590265).