The Division of Spine Surgery welcomes overseas doctors and researchers to visit our Division as either fellows or observers. In general these are popular and the waiting list can be quite long. Early application is therefore well advised.

Several categories of spine fellowships are available:

• Duties:
  1. Provide full clinical duties including routine patient care on wards, emergency on-call, attending out-patient clinics, ward rounds, clinical case conferences and participating in surgical operations.
  2. Other duties as assigned by the Division Chief or his designate.
  3. Participation in a clinical or basic science research project.
• Qualification required:
  1. A medical degree recognized by the Medical Council of Hong Kong.
  2. Evidence of completion of his/her specialist orthopaedic training, or its equivalent.
  3. Offer is contingent upon granting of limited registration by the Hong Kong Medical Council.
• Period of appointment: 6 months.
• Emoluments: HK$10,000 – 20,000 per month (honorarium), depending on experience.

• Duties:
  1. Visiting Spine Surgeon – to participate in limited clinically-related work (mainly assisting surgery) and a research project.
  2. Visiting Researchers – are expected to carry out laboratory-based research projects.
• Qualification:
  1. For Visiting Surgeon – a medical degree registerable with the Hong Kong Medical Council.
  2. For Visiting Researcher – experience in research is required, usually in the form of a laboratory-based M.Phil or PhD or its equivalent.
• Period of appointment: maximum 3 months.
• Emoluments: $100 per day (living allowance), hospital accommodation or equivalent will be provided.

• Short term visitations as observers, aimed at familiarizing with the clinical or research practices of the Division.
• There is no direct patient contact, and the observers are not expected to scrub and assist in surgical operations.
• Qualification: Suitably qualified researchers or clinicians.
• Period of appointment: 2-4 weeks.
• Emoluments: nil.
• Appointee is required to pay a training fee of $100 / working day of visit to the Department. The applicant may apply for a waiver of the training fee with suitable reasons, however, whether this is granted is at the discretion of the Division Chief or his designate.

For the full clinical fellowship, applicants are requested to submit their application consisting of:

1. A full CV
2. A covering letter stating the requested timing for the fellowship (see below)
3. Reference letters from their referees.

There are two 6 monthly fellowships per year, one starting on the 1st Jan of each year and the other 1st July. Decisions for awarding fellowships are made one year in advance, thus the closing date for application for a particular year will be one year prior to the starting date (i.e for Jan 2021 fellowship, closing date is 31st Dec 2019). A telephone interview may be held after the closing date. Unsuccessful applicants will be informed in writing and their names will be removed from the waiting list. Further application by the same applicant for another year will be treated as NEW applications.

For the categories 2 and 3, applicants are requested to submit their application consisting of :

1. A full CV
2. A covering letter stating the requested timing for the fellowship (can start any time of the year, but depends on availability of accommodation and the number of visiting fellows at the time)
3. At lease one reference letter

Link to Previous Fellows Reports