Quality of Life in Asia

This handbook adopts a transdisciplinary approach to primary healthcare, incorporating a wide scope of perspectives and case studies from Hong Kong in China. It consists of four sections that explore the foundations, practices, development aspects of primary healthcare and systems. The book also pays particular attention to the psychosocial and humanistic contexts of primary healthcare, exploring dimensions such as misinformation in the age of social media in health communication and aspects of resilience in primary healthcare. With contributions from scholars and practitioners in areas that include family medicine, psychology, nutrition, health policy, health education, dentistry, social work, as well as Chinese medicine, it is an expansive presentation of current knowledge on healthcare in the community setting. It is an indispensable reference for policymakers, researchers, advanced students, primary healthcare professionals, community health practitioners, and health managers and educators seeking to collate the practical and philosophical aspects of healthcare, in Hong Kong particularly, but also in Greater China and Asia more broadly. Beyond its relevance to the immediate medical community, it is also a valuable text for researchers in medical law, social sciences, quality of life studies, public policy, business administration, and information technology and health communication.

This book explores how public hospital sector doctors in Hong Kong understand their work and careers. Using narrative interviews with 27 medical doctors, the book examines how their personal values provide motivation and meaning for their work. How do they cope with the various hardships and crises they face in public hospitals? How can other doctors navigate similar issues in their own work? What should medical students know about the reality of medical work, as they stand poised to start their own career journeys? What should medical administrators know about work at the coal-face as they seek to tackle the problems the sector faces? This book offers a rare, personal window into doctors’ views on their own work. The book also provides a useful resource for students and scholars in the fields of medical humanities, public health, the sociology of work, and narrative research.