OMSA Student of the Month of September 2015 - David Chan Chun Kong
Meet David Chan Chun Kong (University of Ottawa), our student of the month for September 2015!
David Chan is September's Student of the Month for many different reasons. His colleagues and friends always comment on his amazing work ethic, his many accomplishments, and his desire to always be there for his friends, no matter what.
David started working with Dr. Bromwich, an Otolaryngologist at CHEO (Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario) and became interested in using technology to improve health care. Dr. Bromwich created an iPad App called "ShoeBox Audiometer", which is proven to effectively test children for hearing loss. There is no current universal hearing screening for school age children in Canada and thus children can have undetected hearing loss which leads to decreased school performance, and underdeveloped language and social skills. David wanted to start a community outreach interest group where medical students could use the iPad audiometer App to screen for hearing loss in Ottawa elementary schools.
David started to develop and plan this new interest group called iHEAR (video). He met with school boards across Ottawa and developed research ethics protocols, permission forms for students, and recruited over 30 medical students to screen children in grades 1-2 across Ottawa for hearing loss. It was a huge success. iHEAR screened over 250 children in its first year and detected 12 children with hearing related concerns. These children went on to have formal audiology testing at The University of Ottawa Inter-professional Clinic and to date, one child was found to have severe sensorineural hearing loss on one side who will require hearing amplification. The parents of this child called David and thanked him for his initiative; they had no idea and couldn't be happier that this was caught. David is currently running the program for the second year in a row. He hopes it will be even more successful this year!
David's efforts have been featured on CBC News, and in the Scrub-In Journal (page 14-15). Based on the media coverage, school boards in Alberta and British Columbia have purchased Shoebox units, and will be implementing the testing in their schools.
David is someone who is always looking out for his peers and friends. He is a strong promoter of personal wellness. For example, he has a personal training background and throughout medical school has trained multiple peers at the gym. He is someone who enjoys to spend time with friends and family, and is a great example of someone with great work-life balance – something that every medical students strives to obtain. In addition to being a great friend, role model, and excelling in his studies, David embodies and exemplifies what all physicians have in common: a strong desire to help others.