As a major discipline the history of the Department of Medicine is inseparable from that of the Medical Faculty itself and, indeed, of The University of Hong Kong.

The study of medicine at this University therefore has enjoyed a long and illustrious history covering, as it does, a broad range of areas - from cardiology to family medicine, neurology to dermatology and molecular medicine to medical physics. Fifteen divisions make up the Department.

Professor Lai Kar-Neng, currently Chief of Service of the Hong Kong West cluster hospitals, specializes in the area of internal medicine, clinical immunology and nephrology (renal medicine). His research interests
focus on the pathophysiological mechanisms of selected diseases. He has made important new findings on the pathogenesis and treatment in IgA nephropathy, hepatitis-related nephritis, lupus nephritis, and peritorneal membrane dysfunction in peritoneal dialysis.

A graduate of this University, Professor Lai, obtained both his Doctorate degrees in Medicine and Science from HKU, in 1983 and 1995 respectively.

He was Chair Professor of Medicine at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Chief of Medicine at the Prince of Wales Hospital, until 1997, before returning to his alma mater. He was a Wellcome Fellow and First Clinicial Assistant to the Regius Professor of Physic, that is Royal Professorial Clinician to the Queen, at Cambridge University, in 1989. He was also a Fellow of the Corpus Christi College during his research work in Cambridge. Professor Lai is an international advisor to the Royal College of Physicians, London and the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. He has published extensively, with over 430 full papers in international peer-reviewed journals and 30 book chapters to his name.

He has also served on the editorial boards of several journals including Kidney International, The American Journal of Kidney Diseases, Nephron, Hemodialysis International and Nephrology.

Professor Lai is a member of the elite Association of Physicians of Great Britain and Ireland and has been President of the Hong Kong College of Physicians since 2004.