Dr. Eric Zhang and Dr. Kejing Yin Receive Close to HK$1 Million from Health and Medical Research Fund

In the latest round of the Health and Medical Research Fund (HMRF) of the HKSAR Government’s Food and Health Bureau, Dr. Eric Zhang and Dr. Kejing Yin of the Department have secured nearly HK$1 million in funding to advance their health and medical research projects.

Dr. Eric Zhang, an Assistant Professor in the Department, is leading the project titled "Advancing clinical differentiation between constipation-predominant irritable bowel syndrome and functional constipation using machine learning models". With a substantial grant of approximately HK$487K, his project aims to leverage cutting-edge machine learning algorithms to enhance the accuracy and efficiency of distinguishing constipation-predominant irritable bowel syndrome and functional constipation, potentially transforming patient outcomes.

The funding received by Dr. Kejing Yin, a Research Assistant Professor in the Department, will be used to support his project titled "AI models helping combat antibiotic resistance in ICU — personalized decision support for empirical antibiotic therapy". Securing HK$500K in funding, Dr. Yin proposes to use AI-driven models to enhance antibiotic selection processes, thereby improving patient care and combating the growing concern of antibiotic resistance in intensive care environments.

Professor Jianliang Xu, the Head of the Department of Computer Science, extended his congratulations, saying, “The recognition from the Food and Health Bureau towards the awarded research projects is indeed a great encouragement for the researchers and academic staff of our Department to continue striving for research excellence. Our researchers are leading the way in integrating machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) for gastrointestinal diseases diagnosis, infection management and antibiotic development. The awarded projects also highlight the Department’s strengths in impactful interdisciplinary health and medical research.”

The HMRF, established by the Food and Health Bureau in 2011, aims to encourage, facilitate, and support health and medical research to inform health policies, improve population health, strengthen the health system, enhance healthcare practices, advance standard and quality of care, and to promote clinical excellence through evidence-based scientific knowledge in health and medicine.