CityU Veterinary Medical Centre (VMC) and Diagnostic Laboratory: The Twin Engines of Clinical Service and Teaching

This article belongs to Module 11 “Medicine / Hospital” of the “CityU Unofficial History Archive” (Part I, second section). CityU does not have a medical school — a Western-medicine school training doctors (see biomedical-and-health-sciences.md) — but it does have Hong Kong’s only veterinary school: the Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences (JCC; see veterinary-college.md). This section focuses on the clinical, facility and service dimensions: the CityU Veterinary Medical Centre (VMC) and its supporting diagnostic laboratory and companion animal clinic. For the academic side (curriculum, accreditation, Cornell partnership) see veterinary-college.md; the VMC’s acquisition and expansion history — from Peace Avenue Veterinary Clinic to Southeast Asia’s largest veterinary centre — is covered in veterinary-college-3.md.

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# I. Positioning: a teaching-hospital-level animal medical centre

One of the core challenges in undergraduate veterinary education is that students must complete extensive rotations in real clinical environments. To meet this need, CityU built the Veterinary Medical Centre (VMC) itself, so that it serves both as a public-facing animal healthcare facility and as the clinical-year training base for BVM students — a dual engine of “clinical service + teaching.”

According to the CityU VMC official website^※ and a Times Higher Education report^※, the VMC opened in April 2019 and is described as the largest veterinary medical centre in Hong Kong and one of the largest in Southeast Asia.

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# II. Advanced diagnostic and imaging equipment

The imaging and diagnostic configuration of the VMC rivals, and in some aspects surpasses, many human hospitals. According to the VMC website^※, its medical imaging and diagnostic capabilities include:

• 1.5 Tesla MRI (1.5T Magnetic Resonance Imaging)
• 64-slice CT (Computed Tomography) scanner
• Digital radiography
• Ultrasound and colour Doppler echocardiography
• Intra-operative fluoroscopy
• Endoscopy

In addition, the centre houses an in-hospital STAT diagnostic laboratory, a pharmacy, and separate client areas for emergency and routine appointments. For animals, being able to complete the entire “examination – imaging – lab – surgery – hospitalisation” pathway under one roof is still quite rare in Hong Kong veterinary care.

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# III. Ten specialties and 24-hour emergency services

The VMC’s services cover the main veterinary specialties (VMC official website^※): 24-hour emergency and intensive care, internal medicine, neurology, dermatology, cardiology, surgery, oncology, anaesthesiology, primary care, and more. The “24-hour emergency + multi-specialty referral” model gives the VMC a dual role as both a “community animal clinic” and a “referral-level specialist hospital” — complex cases that are difficult to handle in a general clinic can be referred here.

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# IV. The Diagnostic Laboratory (CityU VDL): a testing hub with Asia’s most advanced equipment

# 4.1 When it was established and why it is a Hong Kong “first”

The CityU Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (CityU VDL) is an independently operated unit under CityU, affiliated with the Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences (JCC)^※. The laboratory is located in Room Y1710, Yeung Kin Man Academic Building on the CityU campus at 83 Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon Tong. It began commercial operations on 4 December 2017^※ and held its official opening ceremony on 10 July 2018^※, officiated by the then Vice-Chancellor and President of CityU, Professor Way Kuo.

The CityU VDL’s most notable “first” status is this: it is Hong Kong’s first commercial veterinary diagnostic laboratory with a dedicated post-mortem room^※. Previously, if a local veterinarian needed to perform a pathological autopsy on an animal, they had to rely on institutional teaching facilities or send samples overseas — a cumbersome process that often took up to two weeks. The establishment of the CityU VDL filled this gap, marking the beginning of a more complete “full-chain” era for Hong Kong’s commercial veterinary diagnostic services.

CityU’s total investment in the VDL was approximately HK$25 million^※ (as of the laboratory’s opening), used to purchase state-of-the-art testing instruments, refurbish the dedicated laboratory space, and build a quality-control system benchmarked against leading international diagnostic centres; the laboratory operates with reference to the training standards and standard operating procedures of the Animal Health Diagnostic Center (AHDC) at Cornell University in the United States^※. In terms of team size, the laboratory had assembled a staff of 26 members^※ at its opening, described as “one of the largest veterinary diagnostic teams in Hong Kong”; the core diagnostic specialists come from New Zealand, Australia and the United States, each with over 20 years of professional experience^※.

# 4.2 Five categories of testing

The CityU VDL is functionally divided into five specialty departments:

Among these, the Rapid Lymphoma Test (employing AI-Stain technology) is one of the signature offerings of the Clinical Pathology department. It enables rapid staining and diagnosis of cancer cells, helping veterinarians determine the nature of an animal tumour in a relatively short time — a practical advantage for time-sensitive oncology treatment decisions.

# 4.3 Core competitiveness as “Asia’s most advanced”

The VDL positions itself with “the most advanced equipment and the most comprehensive coverage in Asia”, and its competitive strengths concentrate on three dimensions:

First, a breakthrough in testing speed. Previously, Hong Kong veterinarians had to send samples overseas for pathology testing, with result turnaround times often taking 10 to 14 working days^※. By completing testing locally, the CityU VDL reduced the average reporting time to 3 to 5 working days^※ (data from the initial operational phase in December 2017).

Second, breadth of species coverage. The laboratory can perform full haematological analyses on the vast majority of animal species^※. Its service scope is not limited to common pets such as dogs and cats, but also covers livestock, poultry, aquatic animals, wildlife and rare species — directly aligning with the operational needs of institutions such as Ocean Park Hong Kong and Kadoorie Farm.

Third, full-chain post-mortem capability. With a dedicated post-mortem room and formally trained veterinary pathology specialists, the laboratory can complete the entire pathological diagnostic chain from biopsy sampling to cause-of-death determination. The then Dean of the College, Prof. Michael Reichel, stated^※: “We have specialist veterinary pathologists based in Hong Kong to supervise all testing and diagnose diseases locally.”

# 4.4 Service clients and teaching role

The CityU VDL operates independently and serves a range of clients including private veterinary clinics, agriculture and fisheries (livestock farms, fish farms), conservation and exhibition organisations (The Hong Kong Jockey Club, Ocean Park, Kadoorie Farm^※), as well as academic and government bodies. The Hong Kong Jockey Club’s equine health management has long depended on high-precision testing; Ocean Park requires pathology capability covering marine mammals; and Kadoorie Farm involves wildlife conservation — the complementary operational needs of these three types of institutions happen to mirror the VDL’s comprehensive setup for “cross-species, cross-scenario” diagnostics.

The VDL is not merely a commercial service provider; it is also an important practical training platform for CityU’s Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine (BVM) programme. The then Director of the VDL, Dr Fraser Hill, said^※: “Diagnostic training is a crucial element for veterinary students in Hong Kong. CityU VDL plays a key role in the BVM programme.” This dual positioning — both an external commercial diagnostic centre and an internal institutional training base — is a relatively rare configuration among veterinary education institutions in the Asia-Pacific region.

CityU officially positions the VDL as “an additional resource for identifying, tracking, and responding to emerging animal diseases and public health issues,” placing it under the “One Health” (同一健康) framework. Situated on a key migratory bird route and bordering mainland China’s agricultural regions, Hong Kong has historically seen early warning signals of several zoonotic diseases (such as H5N1 and H7N9 avian influenza) on multiple occasions; a local commercial diagnostic laboratory equipped with rapid molecular pathogen identification capability can serve as a “listening post” within the early disease surveillance chain.

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# V. The Companion Animal Clinic and “One Health”

JCC also operates subsidiary or sub-unit service facilities such as the Companion Animal Clinic (JCC website^※), further broadening the types of cases and clinical settings to which students are exposed.

This entire suite of facilities — VMC, VDL, Companion Animal Clinic — together serve the “One Health” philosophy embraced by JCC: the idea that animal health, human health, and environmental health are interconnected. Among the four themes of the BVM programme (animal welfare, aquatic animal health, emerging infectious diseases, food safety; see veterinary-college.md), “emerging infectious diseases” and “food safety” are directly relevant to public health, and the clinical facilities are precisely the foundation that puts this philosophy into practice.

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# VI. Why this matters significantly for CityU

1. Filling a Hong Kong-wide gap. Before JCC, Hong Kong had no local veterinary school, and practising veterinarians mostly trained overseas. CityU’s self-built teaching-hospital-level facility is the indispensable hardware for the goal of “training Hong Kong’s own veterinarians.”
2. Supporting international accreditation. The BVM programme holds dual accreditation from the AVBC and RCVS (see veterinary-college.md), and international accreditation imposes hard requirements on clinical rotation facilities and caseloads — the VMC’s scale and equipment are the material guarantee for meeting “Day One Competences” (the ability to practise immediately upon graduation).
3. A research–clinical closed loop. The advanced imaging and diagnostic equipment serves clinical work while also underpinning veterinary and life sciences research, forming a closed loop of “clinical problem identification – laboratory investigation – feeding back into clinical practice.”

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# VII. Summary

• The CityU Veterinary Medical Centre (VMC) commenced operations in April 2019^※. Spanning over 33,000 square feet, it is the largest in Hong Kong and one of the largest in Southeast Asia; it is equipped with advanced instruments such as a 1.5T MRI and a 64-slice CT, 22 consultation rooms, 7 surgical suites, 10 specialties and 24-hour emergency services, with a monthly caseload of approximately 3,500.
• Its supporting Diagnostic Laboratory (VDL) began operating in December 2017 and was officially inaugurated in July 2018^※; it is Hong Kong’s first commercial veterinary diagnostic facility with a dedicated post-mortem room, offering five categories of specialist testing with reports delivered in as fast as 3 to 5 working days; it serves veterinarians across Hong Kong while also fulfilling a teaching role.
• This suite of facilities is the physical bedrock that enables CityU’s — Hong Kong’s only veterinary school — to go from curriculum to clinical practice, from teaching to research, embodying the design principles of “service–teaching integration” and “One Health.”

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