Cover Story

Title: Dreams come true

Medium: A composite painting with Chinese ink and color on treated Xuan paper.

Description: A conventional cardiothoracic surgeon (surrounded by conventional open chest instruments) aspires to the future hybrid operating room (OR). A circular room with giant TV monitor panels showing real time CT images, operative views, coronary angiogram, echocardiogram, hologram of the heart, and vital signs monitoring display. The patient is operated upon using the Da Vinci xi robotics arms. The surgeon driving the device in is the side room with a large glass panel allowing him to look into the hybrid OR. Next to that is the control unit for the CT scanner allowing real time imaging for diagnostic and interventional purposes. Inside the OR, there are a couple of robotic nursing assistants.

All these enabling technologies mentioned above are already in existence.

Artist: Anthony P Yim, MD

Having graduated from Cambridge with double First Class Honors in Medical Sciences Tripos (Part II Pathology), Dr Anthony PC Yim was admitted to Oxford University Medical School on the Hobson Memorial Scholarship, where he graduated with distinction. He pursued a career in cardiothoracic surgery and was trained in some of the top medical institutions, both in UK and USA. He returned to Hong Kong in 1992 to join the Department of Surgery at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He pioneered the development of Minimally Invasive Thoracic Surgery or keyhole surgery of the chest, which earned him a widely acclaimed international reputation. He was promoted to be the Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery in 1995, and Chair Professor of Surgery in 2002. In 2017, he decided to give up his highly successful career as a surgeon to pursue after his childhood dream of being an artist.