Motivations and Opportunities Professor Bishai moved to Hong Kong earlier this year and took the helm at the School of Public Health in March 2023. A social-minded enthusiast since his younger years, Professor Bishai has focused on pressing health issues in charting the course of his professional career. ‘I grew up in the 1980s, when the big planetary crisis was called the population bomb. In college, everybody was talking about the world’s overpopulation and how everyone will starve,’ Professor Bishai recollected. ‘I was motivated by that, and I thought it through. If there is a population bomb, what can I do? I realised that I needed medical training to understand contraceptive methods and family planning technologies. But it also occurred to me that contraceptives do not sell themselves and move out of the pharmacies into people's lives without economics, so I decided to become a doctor and an economist to address the world’s population crisis. That led to a focus on social and economic forces because fertility is driven by things beyond medicine. I also loved the practice of medicine, so I ←Professor David Makram Bishai believes we can create a community that makes us healthy through open conversations and collaboration. 貝大為教授認為與不同持份者建立互信和夥伴關 係，是提升全民健康、共建健康社區的關鍵。 FEATURE + Demographic and environmental changes over time have increasingly given rise to new health challenges. At this time of growing public awareness of, and concern about, health, are there ways to move us beyond just treating diseases to improving the conditions that create health for all? According to Professor David Makram Bishai, Director, School of Public Health, it is a matter of trust- and partnership-building among stakeholders. Local residents can help create a community that makes them healthy, through open conversations and collaboration. Shifting the Paradigm – Building Trust and Partnership for Public Health 28
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