Paediatric Immunologist Finds Mentorship and New Opportunities at HKUMed
Eight years ago, a series of email exchanges with HKUMed faculty cemented Professor Jaime Rosa Duque’s decision to move from the United States to Hong Kong.
Those early conversations have since transformed into fruitful mentor-mentee relationships with leading clinicians, a new research focus and interdisciplinary collaborations for the paediatrician.
Professor Rosa Duque was born in Macau and emigrated to the United States as a child. He completed his Doctor of Medicine, Doctor of Philosophy, paediatric residency and an allergy and immunology fellowship in California. After undergoing 18 years of clinical and research training, he started looking further afield to establish his career.
Curious about immunology research in Hong Kong and how to convert his US training for the local health system, Professor Rosa Duque contacted the current Dean of Medicine, Professor CS Lau, and Professor Yu Lung Lau from the Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.
Their thoughtful responses encouraged him to move to Hong Kong where he has found welcoming colleagues who have supported him in securing his full medical licence and specialist registration to practise locally.
Now a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Professor Rosa Duque credits their mentorship as key to his growth at HKUMed.
As HKUMed seeks out new talent to advance medical science and train tomorrow’s healthcare workers, we spoke to three of the paediatrician’s mentors to learn how they use their extensive experience to nurture junior academics.
Mentorship as a culture
Professor Rosa Duque’s first interaction with the Faculty came in 2015 when he contacted Professor CS Lau, who at the time was Chair of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, asking about the prospects for clinical immunology in Hong Kong.
He was surprised to receive a speedy reply from Professor CS Lau, viewing it as a positive sign that such a major name in rheumatology was eager to engage with early-career clinicians.
“My field is immunology, so I asked him for advice and he was very helpful and eventually he gave me a lot of tips,” Professor Rosa Duque said.
Professor CS Lau has demonstrated the power of good mentorship since returning to Hong Kong in the early 1990s as one of just two clinical academics in rheumatology. Over the past 30 years, he has built a thriving community of rheumatologists in the city and developed a network of overseas collaborators.
Now as Dean of Medicine, he explained that mentorship is integral to the Faculty’s culture and vital to its core mission.
“It’s about culture, it’s not something that I alone can encourage. However, we can keep reminding people that the reason we’re at HKUMed is to improve the health of the people of Hong Kong,” he said. “To do so, we must excel in what we do in training our students and researchers. And the only way to achieve our goal is for everyone to work together.”
He added that HKUMed has a formal scheme to encourage mentorship and provide tools to develop rewarding mentor-mentee bonds.
Professor CS Lau said the Faculty is looking for new talent to help achieve the Faculty’s ambitious expansion plans.
“We want to give them the best environment and the best support so that they can succeed,” he said. “Once they are here, we will be providing them with the best support in terms of monetary support, funding, workplace, research platform and equipment.”
Developing close allies
Professor Rosa Duque’s interactions with Professor Yu Lung Lau , Chair Professor of Paediatrics, also began over email.
He reached out to the specialist in paediatric immunology, allergy and infectious diseases to learn more about their shared specialty. Professor Yu Lung Lau, a top researcher in the field and founding president of the Asia Pacific Society for Immunodeficiencies, was also well-placed to advise Professor Rosa Duque on how to progress in his career.
“[He] and other colleagues here gave me very good advice about how to qualify for my medical license and specialty here,” Professor Rosa Duque said. “So I was able to go through all of those obstacles in the past couple of years really thanks to them.”
Professor Yu Lung Lau has witnessed the benefit of good mentorship both in his career and that of his mentees. These experiences have taught him that creating a positive and lasting relationship requires a sense of fun and joy between mentor and mentee.
“You need two to tango,” Professor Yu Lung Lau. “So the mentor must find the mentee who fits his temperament and then the mentee needs to find a mentor he feels comfortable with.”
Equally, he encourages mentees to research their potential mentors by examining their areas of interest and speaking to their existing mentees.
The pair have since collaborated on studies into COVID-19 vaccination in children, a new area for Professor Rosa Duque.
“Jaime came forward and through that I managed to mentor him in terms of vaccinology and clinical studies,” Professor Yu Lung Lau said. “He was with me initially, every weekend vaccinating children, adolescents and their parents in the community centres for a whole year. He was my close ally during that battle against COVID.”
Professor Yu Lung Lau said a crucial element of mentorship is connecting mentees with experts from other fields to develop new skills. He has tapped into his network to introduce Professor Rosa Duque to leading researchers across the Faculty and experts overseas to expand his mentee’s knowledge.
The Chair Professor of Paediatrics also encourages his mentees to explore new areas such as health policy. For Professor Rosa Duque, this meant putting his name forward for government committees on vaccination.
Seeking diverse voices
During his time at HKUMed, Professor Rosa Duque has sought out mentors outside his discipline to explore a variety of viewpoints.
And in 2022, the Faculty’s mentorship programme matched him with Professor Sophia Chan from the School of Nursing.
“Professor Sophia Chan is a major figure in public health and she gave me a wide range of advice that was very helpful, including how to get grants, promotions and even the best way to achieve work-life balance,” Professor Rosa Duque said.
Despite working in different disciplines, Professor Chan’s background in paediatric nursing meant the pair immediately connected over a shared interest in paediatric care.
When first meeting a mentee, Professor Chan said she seeks to understand the person and to encourage a frank relationship.
“After understanding their needs and their goals and objectives, their style and assessing their abilities, then I will provide advice as per their own goals and matching [those with] the University’s goals,” the former Secretary for Food and Health said.
Professor Chan said she reminds her mentee that leadership roles are not limited to senior staff.
“HKU is a place for leadership,” she said. “I always want the junior colleagues to understand that… there are always things you can do independently and within that arena you can exercise your leadership. I want them to understand that they are really valued and that they would value themselves as leaders.”
This mentor-mentee relationship has sparked yet more opportunities for senior and junior staff to connect and learn from one another. Professor Chan is now mentoring two of Professor Rosa Duque’s colleagues from the Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine in community research.
