Biography

Dr Karla Soares-Weiser is a global leader and currently CEO of Cochrane, the world’s most trusted producer of scientific evidence. She has served as Cochrane’s Editor-in-Chief since 2019, driving transformative changes in evidence synthesis to deliver timely, high-quality, and actionable insights for millions worldwide, including policymakers and governments. With over three decades of expertise spanning research, academia, and leadership, Dr Soares-Weiser is deeply committed to addressing urgent health challenges and inequities, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. A board-certified psychiatrist with a Master’s in Mental Health Epidemiology and a Doctorate in Evidence-Based Health Care, Dr Soares-Weiser excels in building partnerships, shaping global strategies, and delivering impactful solutions at the intersection of healthcare, innovation, and equity.

Biography

Professor Qin Liu has been engaged in research on the association between exposure to environmental harmful factors and children's pubertal development and mental health and related mechanism.

She has been in charge of over 30 research projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Chongqing Science and Technology Commission, Chongqing Education Commission, the Department for International Development (DFID) in the UK and Duke University in the US in the past 15 years to work on evidence-based synthesis, child growth and development, child mental health and behaviours, and child nutrition. She has approximately 100 peer-reviewed publications in national and international journals. She also serves as council member for twelve national and provincial professional organisations related to evidence-based medicine, epidemiology, child health and health promotion.

Biography

Professor Yaolong Chen is a professor and a guideline methodologist at the Evidence-Based Medicine Centre of Lanzhou University. He directs the WHO Collaborating Centre for Guideline Implementation and Knowledge Translation, as well as Lanzhou University’s Cochrane and GRADE Centres.

Professor Chen is the Co-Founder of ADVANCED (AI-Driven deVelopment and AssessmeNt of healthCare guidElines and standard), which aims to empower healthcare with AI to deliver personalised, high-quality recommendations for all. He has authored and co-authored more than 500 peer-reviewed articles on evidence-based medicine and practice guidelines.

Biography

Ms Ana Beatriz Pizarro is a Colombian nurse scientist and the Future of Evidence Synthesis Officer at Cochrane Central. With over 60 peer-reviewed publications, she leads multi-country initiatives advancing evidence synthesis methods, health equity, and global health. She is passionate about bridging science and policy and strengthening the pathways through which evidence informs decision-making, with a focus on reducing health disparities in Latin America, the Caribbean, and across the Global South. Beyond her research, she mentors early-career professionals and advocates for youth leadership in building equitable and sustainable health systems worldwide.

Biography

Professor Ling Li is a professor and doctoral supervisor at the Chinese Evidence-Based Medicine Centre and Cochrane China Centre, West China Hospital, Sichuan University. She received the Young Scholars Changjiang Scholars Award from the Ministry of Education of China and was a visiting scholar at McMaster University in Canada.

Her research focuses on evidence-based medicine for traditional Chinese medicine, clinical trials, and evidence synthesis. She has led eight national-level research projects, including those from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the National Key R&D Programme of China. As the first or corresponding author, she has published over 40 papers in journals such as BMJ, eClinicalMedicine, JAMA Network Open, and BMC Medicine. She has been recognised among the world's top 2% scientists for both her career-long and single-year impact.

Biography

Dr Alexander (Alex) Ng dedicates his career to harnessing technological innovations to promote global health equity and accessibility for underserved communities.

Currently, as the head of Tencent Healthcare, he drives AI-powered digital transformation initiatives within the healthcare sector, overseeing Tencent Healthcare Mini-Program that integrates online and offline medical services, deploys AI-driven self-service tools, and collaborates with healthcare institutions to enhance patient care across the entire journey—from prevention and diagnosis to treatment and chronic disease management. Concurrently, Alex leads Tencent’s AI for Life Sciences Lab, where his team pioneers advanced AI models for drug discovery and multi-omics analysis; and leads Tencent’s Inclusive Health Lab where his team develops AI-enabled software systems to support breast/cervical cancer and congenital heart disease screening in resource-limited settings.

Beyond his corporate roles, Alex contributes to global health as a member of the World Health Organization’s Digital Health Technical Advisory Group, where he advises on ethical AI and digital health policies. He also shares his expertise as an honorary professor at the University of Hong Kong, teaching a master course on health innovation and strategies.

Prior to his tenure at Tencent, Alex served as Deputy Director for Health Innovation and Partnership at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, devising strategies to scale affordable health products and solutions in LMICs. Earlier, as an Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company in the US and Hong Kong, he counselled Fortune 500 companies and governments on optimising healthcare systems and adopting transformative strategies and technologies.

He read medicine (BHB/MBChB) at University of Auckland and practiced at Middlemore Hospital in Auckland, followed by Postgraduate Diploma in Health Informatics from the University of Otago, and Master of Public Health (MPH) from Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Biography

Professor Gojiro Nakagami received his bachelor’s degree in nursing from Kobe University in 2004. In 2009, he completed the doctoral course at The University of Tokyo and received his PhD in health sciences. During the doctoral course, he was awarded a Research Fellowship for Young Scientists from the Japanese government. In 2009, he became an assistant professor at The University of Tokyo and from 2010, he had been served as a lecturer. From 2013 to 2014, he was appointed as a visiting scholar at University of California, Los Angeles, School of Nursing. In 2017, he was appointed as an associate professor at The University of Tokyo and since 2022, he has been appointed as a full professor of nursing at the same university. His research specialties include biomarker search, elucidation of refractory mechanisms, big data/artificial intelligence, robotics, and AR applications for hard-to-heal wounds.

Biography

Professor Susan Michie is Professor of Health Psychology, University College London, UK. She is Director of the Centre for Behaviour Change and Co-Director of Behavioural Research-UK.

Professor Michie’s research focuses on human behaviour change in relation to health and the environment: how to understand it theoretically and apply theory and evidence to intervention and policy development, evaluation and implementation. Her research, collaborating with disciplines such as information science, environmental science, computer science and medicine, covers population, organisational and individual-level interventions. Examples include the Human Behaviour-Change Project and the NIH-funded 5-year project ‘Advancing Prevention Research in Cancer through Ontology Tools’ (APRICOT).

She has published >600 journal articles and several books, including the Behaviour Change Wheel: A Guide to Designing Interventions.

She is previous chair and current member of WHO’s Behavioural Insights and Sciences Technical Advisory Group, and is part of the Behavioural Science Policy Research Unit advising the UK’s Department of Health and Social Care.

Biography

Professor Monica Parry is a full professor at the University of Toronto’s Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing—ranked #1 in Canada—and a practising nurse practitioner. She has sustained a nationally and internationally recognised programme of research focused on reducing the global burden of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in women, a priority area for nursing practice, education, and policy. Her work has informed clinical guidelines and health system improvements. Professor Parry has secured over $7.5M CAD in research funding in the past ten years as principal investigator and has led numerous multi-site studies focused on digital health and women’s heart health.

Biography

Dr Michelle Gunn is Head of Nursing Practice and Regulations at the International Council of Nurses (ICN), where she leads global work on nursing practice, regulation and scope of practice. A registered nurse and lawyer, she has more than 25 years’ experience spanning clinical care, law, regulation, education and health leadership. She was Lead Consultant for ICN’s Definition of Nursing project and has advised governments, multilateral agencies and the World Bank on health systems strengthening. A Global Nursing Leadership Institute (GNLI) Scholar (2017), she is committed to advancing nursing leadership, integrity and global policy.

Biography

Professor Catherine Evans is a clinical academic in palliative care and nursing. She is a Professor of Palliative Care at the Cicely Saunders Institute of Palliative Care, Policy, and Rehabilitation, King’s College London, and Honorary Nurse Consultant, Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust. She is the Director of the Cicely Saunders Institute and Deputy Director of the King’s Clinical Academic Training Office. Professor Evans leads a research programme on the integration of palliative care in community and primary care for adults with multiple conditions, including dementia and frailty. Her interventions incorporate new models of integrated community palliative care, use of person-centred outcome measures for holistic assessment linked with clinical decision aids, and digital healthcare for remote assessment and management of care. She leads the EMPOWER Dementia Network+ - empowering a meaningful life for all with Dementia, and co-leads the Empowering Better End of Life Dementia Care (EMBED-Care) programme.

Biography

Professor Laurie Badzek, Dean and Professor of Penn State’s Ross and Carol Nese College of Nursing, is a nurse, attorney, and educator who specialises in genomics education and competency, ethics, law, and nursing practice. As dean, Badzek oversees nursing programmes at 12 Commonwealth Campuses and the online World Campus. She is a Fellow of the National Academies of Practice, American Association of Colleges of Nursing Wharton Leadership Programme, and American Academy of Nursing.

In 2020, Badzek received the American Nurses Association’s Leadership in Ethics Award for authentically demonstrating the highest standards of ethics and leadership in daily practice and promoting ethical dialogue and scholarship. In 2021, she was selected as a Hastings Fellow.

Badzek and her associates have conducted research in end-of-life decisions, advance care planning and genomics funded by the NCSBN, NIH, NHGRI, NCI, and publications are in the Journal of Nursing Scholarship, Nursing Outlook, Precision Medicine, Palliative Medicine, JAMA Open, American Nurse Today and other peer-reviewed journals. As PI, Badzek conducted one of the largest US studies examining the translation of genomics to bedside care. She is a founding member and currently serves on the advisory board of the Global Genomics Nursing Alliance (G2NA).

Badzek received a BSN and a JD from West Virginia University, and an MSN and an advanced postgraduate law degree (LLM) from DePaul University.

Biography

Professor Robyn Stremler is Dean and Professor at the Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing at the University of Toronto, where she has held senior academic leadership roles since 2015. Professor Stremler’s research focuses on improving sleep and health outcomes for children and their families. She evaluates digital health interventions that leverage wearable sensor data and conducts observational studies to examine factors influencing sleep. Her accomplishments merited induction as Fellow of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing.

Biography

Professor Claire Thurgate is currently Head of School of Nursing, Allied and Public Health at Kingston University. She has a wealth of higher education leadership experience particularly in relation to workforce development and supporting the development and implementation of new roles to meet workplace need through innovative curriculum design. Professor Thurgate’s work has focused on working with employers to develop their future workforce including pre- and post-registration nursing.

Her research interests are related to student and staff success, the implementation of new roles in the workplace, predominantly health care, through work-based and workplace learning.

Biography

Professor Kyung Hee Lee is Professor and Vice Dean for Academic Affairs at Yonsei University College of Nursing, Seoul, South Korea. She earned her PhD in Nursing from the University of Michigan and completed postdoctoral training at Duke University. Her research focuses on dementia care, psychological well-being, and the application of digital health technologies to promote healthy ageing. She has published extensively in leading nursing and gerontology journals and has led numerous nationally and internationally funded research initiatives. Professor Lee actively contributes to advancing gerontological public health nursing science through editorial board service and global academic collaborations.

Biography

Dr Tim Li is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). His research interests focus on digital mental health, AI, and natural language processing. Dr Li has authored more than 50 peer-reviewed articles in international journals on these topics. Before joining CUHK, he worked as an AI engineer in R&D companies, where he gained substantial experience in designing, developing, and evaluating AI systems for mental health purposes. Dr Li received the INFORMS ISS Design Science Award in 2020, and he has obtained research grants to advance his work on AI applications for mental health assessment and intervention.

Biography

Professor Brian Hall is the Founding Director of the Center for Global Health Equity and Professor of Global Public Health at NYU Shanghai. As a recognised authority on public mental health and migration, Hall served as a Commissioner on the Lancet Commission for Mental Health in China. He served as an Adviser to the Expert Consultation and regional policy development on the WHO Future of Mental Health in the Western Pacific Region. He was the academic lead for the Migration, Displacement, and Climate Change Research Agenda Setting for the Western Pacific Region with the World Health Organization. Hall was the inaugural Global Mental Health Fellow of the World Health Organization. He participated in the formulation of the scalable mental health programme launched by the WHO, including Step-by-Step, the WHO scalable digital mental health intervention.

Hall is the recipient of numerous awards, including the APA Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest, an APA fellow, and an inductee into the Delta Omega Honorary Society for Public Health.

Hall has co-authored more than 340 journal articles and other publications and is a Clarivate highly cited researcher (Top 1% globally). He currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief of Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences.

Biography

Professor Sanghee Kim is a professor at Yonsei University College of Nursing, South Korea. She earned her BSN and MSN from Yonsei University and completed her PhD and post-master’s specialty in adult palliative care at Boston College in the US. With a clinical background in oncology and palliative care nursing, her research focuses on ONE Care—Oncology nursing, Nursing ethics, and End-of-life care. Currently, she leads the DE-PAIN project (Digitalised Early Palliative Intervention delivered by Nurses), funded by the National Research Foundation of Korea, aiming to improve the quality of end-of-life care through integrated research, education, practice, and policy.

Biography

Dr Cecilia Kwan is a Nurse Consultant (Palliative Care) at Bradbury Hospice and New Territories East Cluster Hospitals, Hospital Authority. She holds a Master of Palliative Care (Psychosocial Care) from the University of Southampton, UK, and a Doctor of Nursing from The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). A Fellow of the College of Medical Nursing (Palliative Care) of the Hong Kong Academy of Nursing and Midwifery, Dr Kwan formerly chaired the Hong Kong Palliative Nursing Association. In addition to her clinical role, she is actively engaged in palliative care education and development. Her research interest is in life review and die at home issue.

Biography

Ms Kit Man Lai is a Nurse Consultant of Palliative Care in the Hong Kong East Cluster, Hospital Authority. She has all-round hospice and palliative experience, including in-patient care, home care, ambulatory care, in-patient consultative and bereavement care. Ms Lai is currently the Chairperson, Promotion & Publicity Sub-committee member of the Hong Kong Palliative Nursing Association. She is also a Mentor of the Advanced Practice Nursing Certification Programme and an Examiner of the Fellowship Exit Assessment of the Hong Kong College of Medical Nursing.

Biography

Dr Jocelyn Chew is an Assistant Professor at the National University of Singapore (NUS), with joint appointments in Nursing, Biomedical Informatics, and Behavioural and Implementation Science. Recognised as a World’s Top 2% Scientist (Stanford/Elsevier) and recipient of the NUS Medicine Young Researcher of the Year Award (2025), she has secured over SGD 2 million in research funding and various international awards. Her work focuses on digital health, obesity, and cardiometabolic disease prevention, with publications in JACC, Circulation, and Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism. She serves as Associate Editor of JBI Evidence Implementation and is the founder of the Singapore Nursing Innovation Group (SNIG).

Biography

Ms Sarita Chan is a Nurse Consultant (Diabetes) for the Kowloon West Cluster, Hospital Authority. A Fellow in Diabetes of the Hong Kong College of Medical Nursing and holder of a Master's in Primary Health Care, she received her overseas training at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, US. She is the past President of the Association of Hong Kong Diabetes Nurses. She has led several diabetes initiatives, including a nurse-led hypoglycemia management programme for in-patients and telehealth programmes for patients on continuous glucose monitoring. She has also led numerous evidence-based projects, innovative patient empowerment programmes, and nursing education sessions, and has presented her work both locally and internationally.

Biography

Dr Brian Chung is a Clinical Associate Professor at the Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, LKS Faculty of Medicine, the University of Hong Kong. Specialising in clinical genetics and genomics, Dr Chung is interested in research fields including medical application of whole genome technologies, clinical genetics, genetic counselling, precision medicine and multi-omics. He is currently the President of Asia Pacific Society of Human Genetics. Dr Chung also serves as the Chief Medical and Scientific Officer at Hong Kong Genome Institute, where he promotes the city’s long-term development of genomic medicine by driving clinical application, advancing research, nurturing talents and enhancing public literacy.

Biography

Dr Erika Santos is a nurse with a Bachelor's degree from the University of São Paulo and over 25 years of experience in oncology and genomic medicine. She has held leadership roles at A.C. Camargo Cancer Centre, Hospital Sírio-Libanês, and Hospital Beneficência Portuguesa, where she currently coordinates the Genomic Medicine and Navigation Services. She holds a Master’s and PhD in Oncology. She is a founding member and current President of the Brazilian Society of Nursing in Genetics and Genomics (SBEGG). In 2024, she launched Brazil’s first specialisation course in Genetics and Genomics for nurses, reinforcing her commitment to advancing nursing practice through innovation and education.

Biography

Dr Wilson Tam is an Associate Professor and Deputy Head (Research) at the Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies, National University of Singapore. Specialising in epidemiology and statistics, he earned his PhD in Medical Sciences from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. With over two decades of experience in public health and nursing, Dr Tam’s research encompasses risk factors for cardiovascular diseases, environmental health, statistical analyses of health data, and methodological issues in meta-analyses. He has authored more than 150 papers in prominent peer-reviewed journals, such as New England Journal of Medicine and British Medical Journal, and was recognised as a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher (Top 1%) from 2022 to 2024. As a passionate educator, Dr Tam has received the NUS Teaching Excellence Award and the NUHS Healthcare Education Research Award, co-developed the edX MOOC “Quantitative and Qualitative Research for Beginners,” and actively leads research-related modules while supervising numerous honours and postgraduate students.

Biography

Previously the School Director (August 2014 – July 2020), Professor Chair Sek Ying is now the Vice-Director of Research and the Head of Graduate Division of the Nethersole School of Nursing, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). She is the Director of the CUHK Medical Centre. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and a Co-Chair of International Council of Nurses (ICN) Advanced Practice Nursing Network (APNN). She was appointed by the Hong Kong government as a member of the HMRF Grant Review Board; a co-opted member of the Advisory Committee for Regulatory Standards for Private Healthcare Facilities, Department of Health; a member of the Chinese Medicine Development Blueprint Subcommittee, Chinese Medicine Development Committee, Health Bureau; and a member of the Working Group on Advanced and Specialised Nursing Practice, Nursing Council of Hong Kong. She is currently the Immediate Past President of the Hong Kong Academy of Nursing & Midwifery, the Founding President and Council Member of the Hong Kong College of Cardiac Nursing, and an honorary advisor or consultant for many professional organisations, including the Advisory Board of the School of Nursing at Tung Wah College, and the Management Board of the School of Nursing at Union Hospital. At CUHK, she is also a Fellow of the CW Chu College.

Professor Chair received her PhD in Nursing from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Centre, Denver, US. Her research interests focus on cardiovascular and critical care nursing. She has published over 230 peer-refereed journal papers and was widely invited to speak at international conferences. She has been named among the World’s Top 2% Scientists by Standard University for 2021, 2022 and 2023. She was honoured with many prestigious awards including Cardiac Nursing Awards 2007 (First Prize of Excellence or Innovation in Acute or Critical Care, and Third Prize of Excellence or Innovation in Cardiac Intervention or Surgery) by the British Journal of Cardiac Nursing and British Association for Nursing in Cardiovascular Care, Award of Excellence in Social Engagement 2013 and University Education Award 2016 by CUHK, and Gold Merit Awards 2016 and 2018 by the Hong Kong Academy of Nursing. Most recently, Professor Chair was awarded the Chief Executive’s Commendation for Community Service 2022 in recognition of her outstanding community contributions. She is also an Editorial Board Member of Asian Nursing Research, Journal of Research in Nursing and International Journal of Nursing Sciences.

Biography

Professor Helen Chan’s research interests focus on end-of-life care, gerontology as well as care ethics. She has conducted a number of research projects on promoting palliative and end-of-life care, especially advance care planning. Over the recent years, she has obtained various external competitive research grants and teaching and learning funding and a number of research awards in recognition of her outstanding research capabilities. She was also inducted as a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing in 2021, and an honouree of the International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing in 2024.

Currently, Professor Chan is an Associate Editor of Journal of Clinical Nursing and an Editorial Board Member of Nursing Ethics and Asian Journal of Gerontology and Geriatrics. She is a Council Member of the Hong Kong Association of Gerontology. Moreover, she has been appointed as a Professor (by courtesy) of the CUHK Centre for Bioethics and Honorary Advisor of Elderly Service of the Hong Kong Young Women’s Christian Association, the Hong Kong Society for Rehabilitation, the Jockey Club Centre for Positive Ageing and the Jockey Club CADENZA Hub.

Biography

Dr Connie Chong is an Associate Professor at the Nethersole School of Nursing, within the Faculty of Medicine at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. She holds registration as a nurse and has garnered extensive clinical experience in both medicine and paediatrics. Her research is primarily anchored in contextual behavioural science (CBS), with a particular emphasis on applying and evaluating Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for family caregivers of children who have special needs and chronic conditions. Dr Chong has garnered recognition through her publications, invited presentations, research awards, and competitive grants from the Food and Health Bureau, the Innovation and Technology Fund, and the University Grants Committee, positioning her as a leading local academic in applying CBS research frameworks to caregiving contexts.

Recently, Dr Chong has expanded her research focus to include the application of machine learning and natural language processing techniques in CBS-related psychotherapies. Her innovative endeavours have led to the development of Pai.ACT^TM, a pioneering mobile application featuring the world’s first patented integration of deep-learning algorithms with ACT. This app is specifically tailored for family caregivers of children with special needs, offering tiered emotional support through an AI chatbot that delivers personalised ACT therapeutic dialogues based on the user’s psychological needs and escalates to live online counselling as necessary. Pai.ACT^TM has achieved various non-provisional patents and has been highlighted in numerous media reports. The invention was awarded a gold medal at the 49th International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva and a silver medal at the 2024 Silicon Valley International Inventions Exhibition in the United States.

Biography

Dr Suzanne Lo is an Associate Professor of the Nethersole School of Nursing, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. She is a registered nurse possessing ample experience in community care. She received her Ph.D. in Health from the Queensland University of Technology, Australia. Her doctoral research work focused on examining the effectiveness of self-management programmes for community-dwelling stroke survivors.

Dr Lo is well-experienced in conducting randomised controlled trials and systematic reviews. The results of her studies were published in international peer-reviewed journals including Stroke, Disability and Rehabilitation, BMC Neurology, Annals of Behavioural Medicine, and the International Journal of Nursing Studies. She is the principal investigator of several funded research projects in areas related to stroke self-management, home-based ballet-inspired workouts, community reintegration, work ability of stroke survivors, and promoting social inclusion towards people with physical disabilities. Her research also examines the effects of health-promoting interventions that involve partnerships between healthcare professionals and lay and peer volunteers. She is a co-investigator of several funded research projects in areas such as nurse staffing levels and multidisciplinary stroke care.

Dr Lo established the Hayley Hand Care Company Limited in 2024. It is the first social enterprise in Hong Kong to provide humanistic and scientific hand care for the betterment of people with hand spasticity. The social enterprise also promotes employment among golden-aged women by employing and training them to assist in service delivery.

Dr Lo teaches both undergraduate and postgraduate courses. She is a co-applicant of several teaching grants for developing technology-enhanced learning modules about managing intravenous therapies in children for nursing students as well as inter-professional collaborative practice for gerontology students.

Biography

Professor Lau is a researcher and educator in clinical and educational fields. She focuses on preventive medicine with expertise in systematic reviews and meta-analyses, psychometric assessments and large-scale studies. Her specific areas of research can be concluded by the acronym ‘STOP’: (1) Sleep deprivation prevention; (2) Technology-enhanced interventions; (3) Obesity prevention; and (4) Psychological well-being promotion. With extensive research experience in Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau, and Mainland China, Professor Lau has published more than 140 papers in international peer-reviewed journals, including as first author in high-impact journals such as Health Psychology Review, Obesity Review, Journal of Medical Internet Research, and International Journal of Nursing Studies. She has secured research grants of over HK$6,000,000 as principal investigator or co-investigator in Singapore and Macau.

Professor Lau was listed by Stanford University among the world’s Top 2% Most-cited Scientists in 2021 and inducted as a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing in 2023. She was honoured with the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine Teaching Excellence Award in 2018 and the NUHS Healthcare Education Research Award in 2022. She also serves as a reviewer for more than 30 journals and an academic editor for Perspectives in Psychiatric Care and PLoS ONE.

Biography

Professor Winnie So is a Professor of the Nethersole School of Nursing at the Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and an Honorary Professor of Tianjin Medical University & Cancer Institute and Hospital. She is also the President of the International Society of Nurses in Cancer Care, a Fellow of American Academy of Nursing, an Editor-in-Chief of the Asia-Pacific Journal of Oncology Nursing, and an international advisory board member of The Lancet Oncology.

Prof. So’s research areas focus on cancer care, especially in relation to cancer prevention and early detection of cancer, supportive care needs, symptom experience, and quality of life of cancer patients. As a scholar and scientist in cancer care, Prof. So’s research substantively influenced knowledge transfer which has manifested as evidence-based interventions for reducing cancer burden and enhancing quality cancer care. Recently, the Integrative Multicomponent Programme for promoting south Asians’ Cancer screening upTake (IMPACT) developed by Prof. So and colleagues was recognised by the World Health Organization Western Pacific Innovative Challenges as an innovative solution for various health challenges in the region. She has obtained more than HK$46 million to support her research and knowledge transfer projects. She has published more than 240 papers in international peer reviewed journals, including 27 systematic review papers. She delivered more than 160 keynote/invited presentations/lectures at national/international conferences, research institutes and universities. Prof. So was recognised as one of the World’s Top 2% Scientists in 2023 and 2024 by Stanford University. The impact of her research is far-reaching and cited in nursing and health related journals.

Biography

Dr Choi Kai Chow is a Senior Research Fellow of the Nethersole School of Nursing, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He also serves as the Associate Director of Cochrane Hong Kong. He received his PhD in Statistics and has extensive experience in biostatistics and epidemiological studies, and meta-analysis. His research interests include epidemiology of obesity and metabolic syndrome, health behaviour research, and survival analysis with long-term survivors. He has published over 300 papers, including systematic reviews, in peer-reviewed journals on health care and medical research.

Biography

Professor William Li is a Professor of the Nethersole School of Nursing, and the Assistant Dean (Alumni Affairs) of the Faculty of Medicine at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is also the President of the Hong Kong College of Education and Research in Nursing and the Vice-president (Education) of the Hong Kong Academy of Nursing and Midwifery. He was appointed as a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in the United Kingdom in 2017, a Specialist of the Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications.

Professor Li’s research interests focus on two distinct areas. First, he has developed a strong research interest in the field of paediatric oncology. His grants and international publications encompass a number of paediatric oncology studies including the impact of cancer and its treatment on children’s physical and psychological well-being, developing and evaluating psychological interventions for children with cancer and those who survived cancer. The second research area involves health promotion for people with health risk behaviours, such as tobacco use, harmful alcohol use, unhealthy diet, and physical inactivity. In particular, he has made significant contributions to the transformation of smoking-cessation interventions and is actively involved in the development and evaluation of innovative interventions to help people change multiple health risk behaviours to reduce the risk of mortality from non-communicable diseases.

Professor Li has published around 200 international peer-reviewed journal articles, a scholarly book and ten book chapters. Additionally, he has obtained research grants totalling over HK$42 million. H-index as of 31 March 2025: 34 (Scopus ID: 8973660200).

In recognition of Professor Li’s significant and sustained contribution to nursing research, education development and professional services, he was awarded a Fellowship by the American Academy of Nursing in 2019 and was made a Fellow of Education and Research by the Hong Kong Academy of Nursing and Midwifery in 2020. He was listed in the top 2% of the world’s scientists in Year 2021, 2022, and 2023 by Stanford University. He is also currently the Deputy Editor of Cancer Nursing, and an Editorial Board Member of the International Journal of Nursing Studies, Journal of Advanced Nursing and Journal of Clinical Nursing.