The College of Surgeons of Hong Kong · Professional college · Two evenings
AI for surgeons: first a demonstration, then hands-on work.
The College ran two evenings of AI learning for its Fellows and surgical trainees. The first evening was a demonstration; on the second, surgeons worked hands-on—reading papers, preparing slides and documents—while separating what AI can help with from judgements that remain the surgeon’s.
- When
- 19–20 August 2026, two evenings
- Audience
- 86 valid enrolments from 92 applications—mostly Fellows, with some surgical trainees
- Format
- Taught in Cantonese with English handouts; a demonstration evening and a hands-on evening
- Venue
- Pao Yue Kong Auditorium, Hong Kong Academy of Medicine Jockey Club Building
- Programme
- Three parts: an AI demonstration evening, a hands-on workshop, and a virtual follow-up Q&A clinic
- Specialties
- Just over half general surgery; the rest from neurosurgery, urology, paediatric, plastic, vascular and cardiothoracic surgery
The brief
The College offered “AI for Surgeons” to its Fellows free of charge: about 100 places, first come first served, the same cohort on both evenings, with CME points.
Most participants were busy senior surgeons with limited AI experience. The course could not pretend to clinical expertise, and it had to deal with patient-data boundaries: which work suits AI, and which does not.
How it was designed
- Before the course: a 46-minute interview with a practising surgeon about a real working day, then a pre-course survey of enrolled participants to shape the content.
- The hands-on evening: discussing a 30-page medical AI paper with AI using the ROCKS framework; turning two papers into a slide deck; turning a hand-drawn layout into a document; setting up scheduled tasks and discussing safety.
- Printed materials: a ROCKS prompt card and a green/amber/red patient-data card in English and Chinese, plus a 12-page workbook.
What came out
- 86
- valid enrolments (from 92 applications)
- 2
- evenings counted for CME
- Both evenings counted towards Continuing Medical Education (CME) points.
- Enrolment came close to the cap of about 100 places.
- Afterwards, 9 follow-up questions and suggestions came in through a form, and three Fellows emailed questions directly.
- Both evenings were recorded for the College website, for Fellows to watch.
Feedback
Thank you once again for delivering such a fantastic AI workshop for the College fellows. The feedback has been excellent, and several attendees have asked me for your contact information.I think these two days are one of the most important lessons in my life.It was an inspiring experience and I deeply appreciate your sharing and introduction, translating what once was distant and abstract, into concepts easy to grasp and comprehend for amateurs like me.The most important thing for patient care is not precision. It's empathy with precision.In the room
Photographs courtesy of The College of Surgeons of Hong Kong.
What followed
- After the course, the College’s footage of both evenings was edited into five online films with chapters; at the College’s request each gained an introduction and Traditional Chinese subtitles.
- The virtual Q&A clinic is set for 5 October 2026, 19:30–20:30; the College reopened the question form, this time with a contact field.
- Afterwards I answered each Fellow who emailed, including advice on tools for building apps without coding.
Next step
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