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Dr. Ronald Lai is an Associate Consultant in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery at United Christian Hospital and Tseung Kwan O Hospital in Hong Kong. He is also a Clinical Assistant Professor (honorary) at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery of The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Dr. Lai received his medical degree from The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He was awarded the College Medal for best trainee research presentation competition and the Thomas Cheung Education Fund Scholarship during his specialty training. Upon completing a 3-year post-fellowship training in head and neck cancer surgery at Prince of Wales Hospital and United Christian Hospital in Hong Kong, he also obtained the IFHNOS Global Online Fellowship in Head and Neck Surgery and Oncology with Honours.
Dr. Lai was awarded the Hospital Authority Corporate Scholarship to undergo training in head and neck cancer surgery with Professor Johannes FAGAN and endoscopic sinus & skull base surgery with Professor Darlene LUBBE respectively at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.
Dr. Lai is currently a trainer in head and neck surgery at the Kowloon East Cluster, Hong Kong. In addition to head & neck resection and reconstructive surgeries, he has developed special interests in dysphagia management and minimally invasive surgeries including radiofrequency ablation of benign thyroid nodules, sialendoscopy and transoral robotic surgery.

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Woojin Cho is Board certified in Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery and the Representative Director of Withsim Clinic in Bundang(near Seoul), South Korea. He graduated from Korea University in Seoul, South Korea, and trained in Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery at Korea University Anam Hospital. He maintains an active busy practice using Ultrasound, focused exclusively on patients with a lump on the neck including Thyroid nodules, Salivary disease, Lymphadenopathy and various Soft tissue diseases. He is also active in research on Office-based Head and Neck Ultrasound performed by Surgeons and Ultrasonography-guided Procedures (Radiofrequency ablation, Sclerotherapy and Core needle biopsy). He has delivered over 100 scientific presentations worldwide and published more than 20 peer reviewed articles and chapters on medical textbooks, mainly dealing with head and neck ultrasound. As an executive board member of Korean Association of Otorhinolaryngologists and Korean Society of Head and Neck Surgery, he has been in charge of over 20 international and domestic head and neck ultrasound courses for surgeons (Hong Kong, Japan and New Zealand, etc.). He has received three “Presentation of the Year” awards at the Annual Congress of Korean Association of Otorhinolaryngologists.

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Dr. Hanson Leung is currently an Associate Consultant in the Department of Imaging and Interventional Radiology, Prince of Wales Hospital. He graduated from University of Hong Kong and has subsequent received clinical radiology training in Prince of Wales Hospital and was conferred fellow of Royal College of Radiologists in the year 2020 and Fellow of Hong Kong College of Radiologists in 2023. Having received subspecialty training in Head and Neck Radiology, his major clinical and research interests include advanced magnetic resonance imaging of head and neck tumours and cranial nerves, ultrasound and multimodality imaging of thyroid and parathyroid, and image-guided intervention of the head and neck region. His other clinical interests also include Diagnostic Neuroradiology, Interventional Neuroradiology including acute stroke intervention, and Thoracic Radiology. He currently also acts as honorary clinical assistant professor for Department of Imaging and interventional Radiology, the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

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Dr Vlantis is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery of The Chinese University of Hong Kong. His main field of clinical interest is head and neck oncological surgery, including surgery for recurrent nasopharyngeal carcinoma. He is involved with and contributes to the undergraduate ENT programme for Medical Students of the Faculty of Medicine of The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Prior to his present appointment he worked in South Africa and in The Netherlands.

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The treatment of thyroid radiofrequency ablation contributed by Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital is developed firstly by the pioneering physician, Dr. Lin Wei-Che, who initiates the one and only minimally-invasive, non-surgical ablation treatment for thyroid nodule swelling without the necessity of hospitalization. Ever since the December of 2016, Dr. Lin Wei-Che has started setting up interventional treatment (outpatient) clinic, and after a year of operation and endeavors, the impressive medical record of 250 cases have been successfully accomplished. Dr. Lin Wei-Che thus becomes the beginner and the physician with the most extensive experience in Taiwan. And because of the reputation of these innovative medical approach and technology, quite a few of the domestic and international patients have come all the way from afar to receive treatment.

Thyroid ablation is an alternative approach which treats thyroid nodule swelling, a disease that can only be cured by the practice of surgical operation in the past, by means of ablation. The medical team of thyroid ablation led by Dr. Lin Wei- Che will not only discuss the most appropriate therapeutic procedure thoroughly with the patient during outpatient consultation but also carry out the one-day assessment of radiofrequency ablation which allows the patient to go through all evaluations before the treatment on the same day and accordingly precludes the possibility of rushing back and forth. In order that the patient can understand more about the operation, the ablation medical team has even set up health education websites and elaborated videos to make the patient feel reassured. The result of thyroid ablation is obvious to everyone. The improvement rate of the condition has reached up to 90% 6 to 12 months after the treatment, with less than 5% of the overall complication. Apart from improving patient’s symptoms and outward appearance, the advantages of ablation treatment also include the reduction of discomfort during the process, small wound size, short treatment time, rapid recovery after operation, and no scars. Another superiority of thyroid radiofrequency ablation is that it improves the symptoms greatly and allows the patients to keep their own thyroid gland. This makes thyroid ablation become a safe and efficient therapeutic approach in clinical practice.

Furthermore, Dr. Lin Wei-Che is now dedicating himself to the development of micro-interventional treatment for other kinds of tumor (mini-invasive Interventional Oncology), for example, benign lymphangioma, neurofibromatosis, and parotid tumor, in the hope of benefiting more patients in need.

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Professor Nobuhiro Fukunari is a Japanese Endocrine Surgeon and also an expert of thyroid ultrasound and interventions. He has conducted over 4500 cases of thyroid surgery and over 5000 casesof thyroid intervention (PEI, RFA) . He used to work for Ito Hospital (Tokyo, Japan) with Dr. Ito and Dr. Hiroshi Takami for about 10 years. At present, he has been working for Showa University Hospital as a Professor of Surgery and treating thyroid surgery, imaging diagnosis and intervention.