The Medical and Health Research Fund (HMRF) has supported Prof. Frankie Leung to conduct a two-generation study to enhance the recovery outcomes of hip fracture patients. Professor Leung’s team’s early research found the benefits of interdisciplinary team care for elderly patients undergoing hip fracture surgery. Their latest study confirms that a collaborative medical model between Orthopaedics and Geriatrics does not only further shorten patients’ hospital stays but also improves their self-care abilities after surgery.

Queen Mary Hospital was the first to adopt an interdisciplinary team care model for patients undergoing hip fracture surgery at the beginning of 2000, and by late 2018, they adopted a collaborative medical model between Orthopaedics and Geriatrics (where an orthopaedics surgeon is joined by a geriatrician to follow up on post-surgical patients). Both phases of the study showed improvements in various indicators, including a reduction in the average total hospital stay. The result also shows the rate of postoperative complications decreased, and the turnover rate of hospital beds was accelerated.

Several networked hospitals under the Hospital Authority have adopted the collaborative medical model between Orthopaedics and Geriatrics, benefiting over 10,000 elderly hip fracture patients.

On 26 November, Prof. Leung presented his research at the Health Research Symposium 2024.

We invited an elderly patient, who recovered from hip fracture surgery cared by the interdisciplinary team to share his recovery journey, with Prof. Leung and Prof. Yuen of Dept. of Medicine together to talk about the care model. Please click here to view the interview video.