New professorship honours a caring physician

August 19 , 2011

A new professorship in gynecologic oncology has been created at UBC in tribute to the late Chew Wei, a Hong Kong physician.

Dr. Chew, who retired to Vancouver in 1988 and died in 2009, practiced obstetrics and gynecology for 38 years, and came to be dismayed by the prognosis for his patients who developed ovarian cancer. Though not a cancer specialist himself, he was deter mined to do what he could — even posthumously — to improve outcomes for women faced with the disease.

His family and friends wanted to honor those intentions by donating $3 million to the Faculty of Medicine to endow the Dr. Chew Wei MBBS [HK] FRCOG [ENG] Memorial Professorship in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

Born and raised in Malaysia, Dr. Chew earned his medical degree and specialist degrees at the University of Hong Kong and the University of London. Upon returning to Hong Kong, he was a lecturer at the University of Hong Kong and served as acting Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology before going into private practice. He also served as President of the university’s medical society.

“UBC’s Faculty of Medicine is enormously grateful for the generosity of Dr. Chew’s family and friends,” says Gavin Stuart, Dean, Faculty of Medicine and Vice-Provost, Health at UBC.  “I remain in my clinical role as a member of our ovarian cancer team here in BC, and I know that this gift will help cement our place as a world leader in ovarian cancer research and treatment, hastening the day when this disease no longer poses the threat that it does today.”

REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION FROM UBC MEDICINE, SPRING 2011, VOL. 7, NO. 1, Page 7