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Dr. Czarina Leung

Function in Be Priceless

Founding Director

Community engagement
Educator 
Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, Learning 
Funder & funding development

Co-lead in well-being and safety

Credentials

Master in Public Health (Johns Hopkins University)

Fellow of Hong Kong College of Physicians (Critical Care Medicine)

Postgraduate Diploma of Infectious Diseases (HKU)

Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB from CUHK)

Bachelor of Sciences - Integrated Sciences in medical genetics and biochemistry (UBC)

Purpose in Action

Dr. Czarina's purpose is to empower at risk communities to flourish healthily, equitably, and regeneratively.

For more than 22 years, Dr. Czarina served in care and protection of communities facing disproportionate risks

Service Experience

Founding Director

Public health professional

ICU doctor and educator

Humanitarian doctor & health educator

Be Priceless, a trans-sectoral educational non-profit to strengthen children, youth and families' personal and collective flourishing, well-being and safety. Dr. Czarina directs, provides, and self-funds this empowering and engaging program to disadvantaged communities free-of-charge to ensure this impactful life skills training is accessible, applicable and inclusive of those face greater levels of risks, including people from refugees, asylum seeking, low-income, new immigrants, minority ethnic contexts.

 

Dr. Czarina spent 8 years and collaborated with more than 200 diverse community members and professionals from broad expertise to develop the SEED Courses. The SEED Courses improved children’s health, emotional regulation, well-being, and safety. For the caregivers participants, the Courses were able to significantly improve the quality of life for the caregivers themselves and their children. The courses promote collective transformation to growth, mental-physical-social well-being, and safety as well as equity, inclusion, diversity.

Dr. Czarina worked in the World Health Organization (WHO) on multiple disaster risk reduction projects, including during the COVID-19  pandemic and other health emergencies to support vulnerable populations and countries; and contributing to some of the UN office of disaster risk reduction’s project related to climate and other emergencies.

 

Member of Scientific Committee and Advisor Board Member for Hong Kong Jockey Club Disaster Preparedness and Response Institute.

 

Inducted into the Johns Hopkins University's Delta Omega Honorary Society in recognition of excellence in leadership that advances and sustains the public's health.

Adjunct assistant professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care; and formerly also at the Hong Kong Institute of Diabetes and Obesity.

 

During the most severe wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Leung answered an urgent request to serve as a senior doctor for the ICU of Queen Mary Hospital of the University of Hong Kong. She did so by taking care of the biopsychosocial health of the team and the patients. She contributed to stabilizing both COVID and non-COVID ICUs fully before completing the service.

For more than 20 years provided free health education or services for low-resource at risk communities including in refugee camps, rural communities internationally including Uganda (HIV-prevalent areas), rural Vietnam, Myanmar, informal settlement in Philippines; and for training health workers in Nepal, India, and more. Developed risk communication-education for youth on climate disaster and humanitarian impact for the Hong Kong Red Cross.

Academia/ Researcher

Former Coordinating Editor of WHO’s Western Pacific Surveillance and Response journal. Author United Nations (UN) Environment’s Adaptation Gap Report and 24 peer-reviewed journal publications on health educations, communications, infectious disease and other. Key contributor to multiple major WHO guidance,  including: Health Emergency and Disaster Risk Management Framework, Actions for consideration in the care and protection of vulnerable population groups from COVID-19, Algorithm for COVID-19 triage and referral, Glossary of Health Emergency and Disaster Risk Management Terminology

Interviewee/ Speaker

Publications

PUBLICATIONS: (28, including 24 peer-reviewed articles)

  • Qiuyu Jing, Chi Hung Czarina Leung (co-first author), Angela Ruohao Wu, Cell-Free DNA as Biomarker for Sepsis by Integration of Microbial and Host Information, Clinical Chemistry, Volume 68, Issue 9, September 2022, Pages 1184–1195, https://doi.org/10.1093/clinchem/hvac097

  • WHO technical guidance notes on Sendai Framework reporting for Ministries of Health. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2020. License: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.

  • Leung CHC, Lee A, Arabi YM, et al. Mechanical Ventilation Discontinuation Practices in Asia: A Multinational Survey. Annals of the American Thoracic Society. 2020 Dec 7. doi: 10.1513/AnnalsATS.202008-968OC. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 33284738.

  • Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction: Health in all disaster risk management strategies – Concept Note. Geneva: UNISDR. 17 April, 2019.

  • Ho J, Chan H, …, Leung CCH,  Wu WKK. Cathelicidin preserves intestinal barrier function in polymicrobial sepsis. Critical Care. 2020 Feb 10;24(1):47

  • Murray V, Gil CL, Hess J, Ismail R, Leung CCH, et al. Chapter 6. Heat and Extreme Events. Adaptation Gap Report. United Nations Environment Programme, 2018: 39-46.

  • Leung CCH, et al. Comparison of high-flow nasal cannula versus oxygen face mask for environmental bacterial contamination in critically ill pneumonia patients: a randomized controlled crossover trial. J of Hosp Inf. 2019:84-87

  • Leung CCH, et al. Exploring the scope of communication content of mechanically ventilated patients. J of Critical Care. 2018;44:136-141

  • Ho J, Liang S, Liu XD, Zhang L, Wu WKK, Chang MTV, Leung CCH (corresponding author). Inhibition of sphingosine kinase 1 for protection of gut barrier function in sepsis. Intensive Care Med (ICM) Experimental. 2018;6(suppl 1):32 (p34)

  • Loo JFC, Kwok HC, Leung CCH (co-first author), et al. Sample-to-answer on molecular diagnosis of bacterial infection using integrated lab-on-a-disc. Biosensors and Bioelectronics. 2017;93:212-219.

  • Hui CYT, Leung CHC, et al. Performance of a novel non-fit-tested HEPA filtering facemask. Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology. 2017;38(10):1260-1261.

  • Ho J, Zhang L, Liu X, Wong SH, Wang MH, Lau BW, Ngai SP, Chan H, Choi G, Leung CC, et al. Pathological role and diagnostic value of endogenous host defense peptides in adult and neonatal sepsis: a systematic review. Shock. 2017 Jun;47(6):673- 679.

  • Tang M, Loo JF, Wang Y, Zhang X, Kwok HC, Hui M, Leung CC, et al. Motor- assisted chip-in-a-tube (MACT): a new 2- and 3-dimensional centrifugal microfluidic platform for biomedical applications. Lab Chip. 2017 Jan 31;17(3):474-483

  • Ho J, Chan H, Wong H, Wang MHT, Yu J, Xiao Z, Liu XD, Choi G, Leung C, et al. The involvement of regulatory non-coding RNAs in sepsis: a systematic review. Crit Care. 2016.

  • Ho J, Yu J, Wong SH, Zhang L, Liu X, Wong WT, Leung CCH, et al. Autophagy in sepsis: Degradation into exhaustion? Autophagy. 2016: 1-10.

  • Wong MCS, Nelson EAS, Leung C, et al. Ad hoc influenza vaccination during years of significant antigenic drift in a tropical city with two seasonal peaks - a cross-sectional survey among health care practitioners. Medicine (Baltimore). 2016;95(19):e3359.

  • Leung CCH, et al. Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. ICM. July 2014:40(7):1015-101 

 

Contributor of:

  • Actions for consideration in the care and protection of vulnerable population groups from COVID-19. Interim guidance. Manila: WHO Western Pacific Regional Office (WPRO). 2020

  • Algorithm for COVID-19 triage and referral interim guidance. WPRO. 2020

  • Glossary of Health Emergency and Disaster Risk Management Terminology. Geneva: WHO; 2020.

  • Health Emergency and Disaster Risk Management Framework. Geneva: WHO; 2019. License: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.

  • Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction: Health in all disaster risk management strategies – Concept Note. Geneva: UNISDR. 17 April, 2019

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