The appearance of a new coronavirus in Wuhan, China, in late 2019 raised alarm bells in Hong Kong, and radiologists in the city quickly mobilized to prepare for the pandemic. Dr. Michael Kuo of the University of Hong Kong shares their experiences and what they learned.
In the May 1 presentation from AuntMinnie.com's 2020 Virtual Conference, Kuo discusses how hospitals and public health authorities in Hong Kong learned from the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2002-2003, which informed the city's response to SARS-CoV-2. He also discusses the use of advanced technology to fight COVID-19, such as artificial intelligence (AI), which could provide an early warning of future outbreaks.
Kuo is founding director of the Medical Artificial Intelligence Lab Program in the department of diagnostic radiology at the University of Hong Kong. He also founded Ensemblehealth.AI.
![Images show the pectoralis muscles of a healthy male individual who never smoked (age, 66 years; height, 178 cm; body mass index [BMI, calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared], 28.4; number of cigarette pack-years, 0; forced expiratory volume in 1 second [FEV1], 97.6% predicted; FEV1: forced vital capacity [FVC] ratio, 0.71; pectoralis muscle area [PMA], 59.4 cm2; pectoralis muscle volume [PMV], 764 cm3) and a male individual with a smoking history and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD) (age, 66 years; height, 178 cm; BMI, 27.5; number of cigarette pack-years, 43.2, FEV1, 48% predicted; FEV1:FVC, 0.56; PMA, 35 cm2; PMV, 480.8 cm3) from the Canadian Cohort Obstructive Lung Disease (i.e., CanCOLD) study. The CT image is shown in the axial plane. The PMV is automatically extracted using the developed deep learning model and overlayed onto the lungs for visual clarity.](https://img.auntminnie.com/mindful/smg/workspaces/default/uploads/2026/03/genkin.25LqljVF0y.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&crop=focalpoint&dpr=2&fit=crop&h=167&q=70&w=250)
