Professor Herbert ‘HPK’Ho Ping Kong

Senior Consulting Physician at Canada’s University Health Network (UHN)

Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto

Share with us your earliest memories of Kingston.

Hurricane 1944, there was a large ship on the front lawn of our home at Rockfort… playing in the sawmill on Victoria Ave instead of going to school…. my parents Percy, and Mary Ho Ping Kong, walking up the hill on Clovelly Road.

What Jamaican food did you most crave on arrival?

The great flavour of a Bombay mango –my sister-in-law, Pearline, gave us two. There’s great Jamaican food in Toronto but no fresh Bombay mangoes.

You were the guest speaker on Monday evening at the MAJ Golden Jubilee Gala & Awards Banquet and also launched the MAJ’s Golden Jubilee celebrations and symposium under the theme: ‘Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases: The 21st Century Tsunami’. What was the one thing you wanted those in attendance to take away?

We presently, and for the future, will need and have great technology but technology must be used wisely and not at the expense of the human side of medicine. This is defined and amplified in my recent book The Art of Medicine – Healing and the Limits of Technology.

Did you find medicine or did medicine find you?

My nanny, “Mum Robinson”, who was from Vere in Clarendon, told me that I was going to be a doctor like the surgeon Dr Robb from Spaulding… I was five years old at the time.

Was the Centre of Excellence in Education and Practice that was founded in 2008 and named for you a dream of yours?

My junior colleagues, Drs Rodrigo Cavalcanti and Matthew Sibbald, deserve the credit for this; they wanted to better teach the examination techniques at the bedside using simulation. I promised to buy one for listening to heart murmurs. I had $20K… the cost was $80K! The next day one of my patients gave us $50K! I realised then that I could fund-raise for medical education. The late Ray Chang who was at that time the Chancellor at Ryerson University, a fellow Jamaican and philanthropist of the year in Toronto, then took over and provided great financial support for the centre. We are forever grateful to him.

You have been likened to the TV series character House… but nicer. How do you react to this?

I have been fortunate to have my performance observed and dissected by thousands of medical students, residents and other doctors. Some of them have been more than kind in their description of me: “One-man Mayo Clinic” or a “Modern-day William Osler”… but to have such comments in Canada’s premier national newspaper was certainly a shock, albeit a pleasant one. The morning after Michael Posner wrote his now famous House… article” about me, I began receiving congrats from my former university president and Champagne gifts.

Dr Claudine Lewis, a former student, refers to you as one of her mentors; others speak of you in hushed and revered tones… What or who keeps you grounded?

My wife Barbara (herself a dermatologist), my five children (including in-laws) and four grandchildren. I am the resident chef at 5:00 pm on Sundays for the family of 11. They almost always never comment on any of my achievements, even with my prompting (but deep down I know that they do care). At one of my special lunch tributes a few years ago, my granddaughter Sarah, then only five or six, after listening to a long list of achievements, whispered to me, “BA BA (grandpa), what did you do to deserve this nice lunch?”

Sadly, many of today’s doctors are perceived as non-caring and in the profession to turn a quick buck. How do you react to this?

There are in fact many fine doctors around but we need more of them. Their voices need to be heard. This is one of the reasons I am speaking out on their behalf.

What’s your response to free health care in Jamaica?

Nothing worthwhile is ever FREE. Health care in a just society should be available to all of its citizens. I believe that to do this in today’s world would require a combination of “public” and “private” resources.

Were you the minister of health for Jamaica what would your primary focus be?

We have to take care of the sick but there are too many lifestyle-related illnesses like obesity, diabetes, stroke, hypertension and smoking. We have effective remedies for them but we are not using them effectively.

How has being Jamaican shaped Dr Herbert Ho Ping Kong?

Jamaica gave me a great education at St George’s College and the University College of the West Indies where I studied medicine. Our past (great) athletes like Herb McKinley, Arthur Wint, George Rhoden, Donald Quarrie and now Bolt, plus our amazing sprint queens, all made me and continue to make me a high-level dreamer.

Share with us your latest splurge.

We are at Round Hill.

Why did you choose Round Hill Hotel & Villas?

Years ago, we were offered the chance of splitting time there with another hotel. We did not take up the offer, so we finally decided to do what we should have done years ago. Summer camp at Chetwood School in MoBay was never like this!

Share with us a few of your preferred travel spots.

We are cruisers and have sailed to many islands in the Caribbean. We’ve also done Megan’s Bay St Thomas, USVI, Baltics, St Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum.

What was your last major splurge?

London with the family!

And the last book read?

In addition to medical content I’m an avid newspaper reader, ie, real newspaper – at least two major papers every day including Sundays. I’m not a great ‘book reader’.

When was the last time you had a good laugh and, conversely, a good cry?

I laugh a lot. I cried last year when my great friend G Raymond Chang died under my care.

If you could change something about your life, what would it be and why?

I really have no regrets. Whenever I have been really happy and contented something would always happen days, weeks after to shatter the tranquility. I have long learnt that in life you really need to take the bad with the good and I have had more than my fair share of the good, so I have no regrets.

Finally, what’s your philosophy?

Always keep an even keel. Never get too high or too low… always be your brothers’ and sisters’ keeper.