Obituary and Condolences

Obituary - Professor Moira Mo Wah Chan-Yeung 1939 - 2024

Professor Moira Chan-Yeung, a highly respected clinician scientist with a distinguished career in respiratory medicine, passed away in Vancouver, Canada on 6 September, 2024.  
 
Professor Chan-Yeung was born in Hong Kong, studied at the Diocesan Girls’ School and entered medical school at the University of Hong Kong (HKU). In 1963, she began her professional career in the University Medical Unit at Queen Mary Hospital, and in 1966, she pursued advanced studies in the United Kingdom on a Commonwealth Scholarship. Subsequently, she relocated to Canada with her husband, Dr. David Yeung, and joined the Department of Medicine at the University of British Columbia (UBC), where she devoted herself to a lifetime academic path, and became an Emeritus Professor of Medicine on retirement. After an illustrious career in UBC, she returned to Hong Kong in 1998 as Chair Professor in Respiratory Medicine through a Distinguished Visiting Scholar Scheme at HKU, and remained an Honourary Clinical Professor of Medicine after retirement.
 
Professor Chan-Yeung’s impact on the field of occupational asthma was profound. Her groundbreaking research at UBC led to the identification of the chemical compound responsible for asthma caused by Western Red Cedar wood dust exposure in the forestry industry, a discovery that had a tremendous impact on government policies regarding workplace health and safety standards, ultimately benefitting countless workers. Her significant contributions to occupational and respiratory medicine were recognised in several esteemed awards, including the Major and Lasting Contribution to Occupational Medicine Award from the American Industrial Hygiene Association and the prestigious Distinguished Achievement Award from the American Thoracic Society.
 
On return to Hong Kong in 1998, she lost no time to engage with old and new friends in the local respiratory community and initiated a number of multi-center research studies. She master-minded and worked hands-on on the project of The Burden of Lung Diseases under the auspices of the Hong Kong Thoracic Society, obtaining health service data of various common respiratory diseases from the Department of Health and the Hospital Authority for analysis of mortality and hospitalisation, and trends from 1997 to 2005. This was no small feat at a time with no ready access for clinicians to territory-wide health databases. The work served as a valuable epidemiologic reference for further strategic respiratory and public health service developments in Hong Kong.  
 
Professor Chan-Yeung’s dedication to respiratory medicine went much beyond her work - while she herself always adhered to a very modest lifestyle, she made magnanimous personal donations to establish the YC Chan Scientist Award at the University of Hong Kong, and the Moira and David Yeung Professorship in Respiratory Medicine Endowment Fund at the University of British Columbia.
 
In the past decade or so, Professor Chan-Yeung developed a second career – as a historian and writer. True to form, she wrote a series of books about medical history in Hong Kong, going from 1842 to modern-day healthcare services, and the contents were characteristically well-researched. She also penned interesting biographies of several notable characters in medicine or education in the city, and these writings showed up her talent to tell these unique life stories interwoven with their own historical background.    
 
Despite her many accomplishments and accolades, Professor Moira Chan-Yeung has remained a most unassuming and gentle yet principled person. Her quiet, unwavering commitment to medicine and scholarship will always be fondly cherished by those of us who know her personally, and inspirational for future generations of doctors and researchers, not the least pulmonologists. At this time of final farewell to a dear colleague and friend, we extend our heartfelt condolences to her family, Dr. David Yeung and their beloved children and grandchildren.
 
Hong Kong Thoracic Society
Hong Kong Lung Foundation
CHEST Delegation Hong Kong and Macau