Health Sciences

This version of the Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience includes an Independent Study Project (ISP) done under the direction of the instructor. The minimum reading is between 20 and 25 articles from established academic periodicals/magazines. The ISP is 10-12 pages and counts for 1/3 of the overall grade for the course. In this course, students learn to use neuroscience methods to study the cognitive development of infants, children, and adolescents. The course begins with the various methods used in developmental cognitive neuroscience, such as pediatric and infant MRI, EEG, and fNIRS. In this context, students uncover and discuss the benefits and challenges of each approach and the feasibility of studying different age ranges. The course then examines typical brain development as assessed with in vivo MRI (including trajectories of white & gray matter over the life span). Next, are more specific aspects of cognitive development such as the development of visual processes where students learn how learning to read affects the brain and how regions involved in face processing develop throughout childhood to support important social functions such as face recognition. Topics are approached using a mix of formats including active participation, working in subgroups, presentations, short lectures, and videos.

This course examines how GIS is used to address and analyze pressing health problems from the geographical perspective. It covers such topics as theoretical and practical issues, simple disease mapping, disease pattern analysis, and environmental association through spatia modeling techniques. 

The use of nanotechnology in medicine is an emerging field that can revolutionize the treatment and detection of disease. Through hands-on laboratory sessions, workshops, and lectures by world-leading researchers and active clinicians, this course offers both an insight into these emerging technologies and a fundamental understanding of why size matters and how nanoscale technologies interact with biological environments. Students visit the nanoscale quantum universe, and see how nanoscale objects can be tuned for disease targeting. 

This course studies the sensory qualities and chemical principles (moisture, carbohydrate, protein, fat) of color, taste and flavor, textural properties, and toxic substances in foods. 

This course examines the concept of psychological health and diverse biopsychosocial factors that may be indicative of psychological distress. It looks at the integration of internal (e.g., personality) and interpersonal (e.g., conflict) factors that may contribute to our psychological and physical health. Topics include body and emotion, self-identity, family and interpersonal relationships, and academic and professional performance.

This course examines sports in Hong Kong from personal development to the impact on society. It will first introduce different areas of sports, including medicine, the technologies involved in increasing and maintaining performance, and an overview of sports in Hong Kong. Following this, local elite athletes will share their experience in professional training and international events so that students can better understand strategies about how to tackle difficulties to reach the top of a profession and apply these principles to their own experience. 

This course provides a basic introduction to human nutrition with emphasis on the underlying molecular mechanisms and aspects. Topics include: an introduction to the anatomy and physiology of the gastrointestinal system, including an introduction to the natural bacterial microbiota in the digestive system and its influence on human nutrition and health; the study types used in human nutrition studies; energy balance and macro nutrients in human nutrition; a detailed mapping of the structure and mechanisms of action of vitamins, and their influence on human health; an overview of minerals and trace elements in food and the importance on health conditions; "functional foods" and selected additives and their mechanism of action and impact on health; the relation between diet and the development of lifestyle diseases. The course involves laboratory exercises of glucose tolerance test after intake of different food components and DEXA body scanning.

The goal of this course is to popularize women's health and health care knowledge to non-medical students in school, so that students can master the basic knowledge of common obstetrics and gynecology diseases in women and how to prevent health care, and to strengthen the popularization of some common emergencies in obstetrics and gynecology among students. The understanding of abdominal diseases enables students to grasp the significance of timely medical treatment based on disease assessment. Lay a good foundation for further strengthening awareness of prevention and health care.

The teaching of this course should enable students to master the basic theories and basic knowledge of common diseases in obstetrics and gynecology, with special emphasis on cultivating students' ability to analyze and solve practical problems, so that students can grasp the significance of timely medical treatment based on disease assessment. Lay a good foundation for further strengthening awareness of prevention and health care. This course will also mobilize the enthusiasm of all types of students through various learning activities and evaluation methods, so that students can generate and maintain curiosity and critical thinking about scientific issues, and improve students' self-control ability, learning ability, expression ability, and critical thinking ability. , cooperation skills and other comprehensive training, so that they will be brave and able to contribute to the promotion of human health in the future.

This course examines global policies, politics, industry and institutions and their neo-colonial underpinnings, and their influence on current global health theory, research and practice, with a special focus on the health of Indigenous peoples in Canada and other racialized groups. It looks at the environmental and social determinants of health and health inequities, with attention to women and children’s health, communicable and non-communicable disease, and the complexities of disasters and humanitarian crises, as well as global health governance,systems, and innovations and social entrepreneurship in health.

This course provides theoretical foundations and empirical methods to evaluate healthcare interventions from an economics perspective (also known as economic evaluation in health and medicine). It covers the principles and methods of economic evaluation, including how to define and measure costs and effectiveness and how to design an economic evaluation study.