The Department of Family Medicine and Primary Care was established in 2010 to provide quality primary care through family medicine education, research, collaboration and innovative clinical services. The department aims to be a leader in academic family medicine and primary care and to have an influence on health care policy, medical education and clinical research nationally and internationally.

As the first Head of the Department Professor Cindy Lam has been instrumental in pursuing the goals and mission through the primary care clinic in Ap Lei Chau which will serve as a model for primary care in China. Professor Lam was the first local medical graduate to become professor of Family Medicine in Hong Kong. She has worked for more than 25 years to establish family medicine as an academic discipline in Hong Kong. Her vision is that quality primary care will be available to all through education, research and service innovation in family medicine.

Her research focuses mainly on quality of life and primary health care services. The first enables the evaluation of patient-centered outcomes in health and health services, and the latter translates medical science into evidence to support best practice in primary care.

Professor Lam established the primary care service of the family medicine teaching clinic initially in the Violet Peel Health Centre and currently in the Ap Lei Chau Clinic, which is a benchmark of quality primary care.  Several innovative services including telephone booking, problem-oriented medical records, ICPC coding of reason for encounter, patient hand-held records, and chronic disease shared care programmes that were pioneered by the department have become standards of quality primary care in Hong Kong.  Her next mission is to develop a Family Medicine and Primary Care service in the HKU Shenzhen Hospital to serve as a model in China.

Professor Lam graduated with an MBBS degree from The University of Hong Kong in 1981 with distinctions in Physiology and Pharmacology, and three academic awards including the Alumni Prize for the Best Female Medical Graduate of the Year. She obtained the Doctor of Medicine degree from the University in 2003.

When the General Practice Unit of the University was first founded in 1985 Professor Lam joined as medical officer. She became a full-time Clinical Lecturer in 1989 and finally a Clinical Professor in 2007. She served as Head of the Unit from 1991 to 1995 to establish the general practice teaching programme and clinical service. And she became Head of the Family Medicine Unit again from 2005 to 2010 building up its academic capacity and established the Department of Family Medicine and Primary Care in 2010.

Professor Lam's main teaching responsibility is leading the family medicine and primary care undergraduate medical curriculum.  She also plays a major role in several other trans-disciplinary programmes in the medical curriculum including the clinical visits and clinical interpersonal skills programmes.  The professor was awarded the Faculty Teaching Medal for excellence in teaching in 2006.