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Respiratory Medicine
Draft proposed by Professor Simon Lam
Reviewed by Dr YK Shiu
Essential Skills
Domain 1 Professional Values & Behaviour
Domain 2 Communication
Domain 3 Procedural skills
- Airway management and resuscitation
- Face-mask seal and positive pressure ventilation
- Intubation (direct laryngoscopy)
- Use of laryngeal mask airway
- Use of oropharyngeal/ nasopharyngeal airway
- Replacing tracheostomy tube
- Measuring peak flow rate
- Thoracocentesis and chest drain insertion
Domain 4 Patient Management
Additional desirable skills are listed in each proposal. These recommended skills are to be acquired as opportunity arises.
Download Syllabus (28 November 2023)
VIEW another syllabus
Basic Training
Pulmonary physiology and anatomy
- Basic knowledge of pulmonary embryology and its clinical relevance.
- Understanding of normal and abnormal anatomy of paediatric upper airway and lower airway.
- Basic knowledge of pulmonary physiology and variations according to age group and disease status.
- Understanding respiratory failure: clinical features and management strategies.
- Knowledge of normal sleep physiology.
Pulmonary diagnostic tests
- Understanding of indications for pulmonary function, sleep assessment, lung imaging and endoscopy.
- Understanding modality of pulmonary function and sleep assessment.
- Interpretation of simple spirometry results.
- Interpretation of arterial and capillary blood gas results.
- Interpretation of chest radiographs.
Common respiratory presentations
Know how to approach, investigate and initiate management in a wide range of common respiratory presentations:
- Chronic cough
- Stridor
- Hoarseness
- Choking
- Cervical lymphadenopathy
Acute infective respiratory diseases
- Understanding of respiratory infections with or without complications
- Acute bronchiolitis
- Community acquired pneumonia
- Acute epiglottitis, severe croup, tracheitis
- Mycobacterial and non-tuberculous mycobacterial infections with focus on pulmonary tuberculosis, TB pleural effusion, TB lymph node and latent TB infection
Chronic suppurative lung disease
- Bronchiectasis
- Lung abscess
- Pleural empyema
Allergic respiratory conditions
- Asthma
- Pre-school wheeze
- Allergic rhinitis
Common/important respiratory conditions in newborn term and/or preterm infants
- (Please refer to neonatology syllabus for details)
- Chronic lung disease (in paediatric age group)
Pulmonary complications on the intensive care unit
Please refer to the PICU syllabus.
Pleural diseases (pneumothorax and pleural effusion)
Know how to recognise, diagnose and manage pleural conditions which include:
- Pneumothorax
- Pleural effusion
- Chylothorax
- Haemothorax
Respiratory manifestations of diseases of non-respiratory systems
- Connective tissue diseases
- Cor pulmonale
- Sudden infant death syndrome and apparent life-threatening events
- Foreign body aspiration and chronic aspiration syndrome
- Gastro-oesophageal reflux related lung disease
Sleep medicine
- Knowledge of sleep disordered breathing including obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome.
- Recognises importance of sleep routine and sleep hygiene.
Desirable skills
Assisted ventilation
- Use of different modes of invasive mechanical ventilation
- Use of different non-invasive ventilatory support and different choices of interface
- Assess the need to initiate ventilator support
Higher Training
Pulmonary diagnostic tests
- Ability to conduct and interpret simple spirometry
- Basic interpretation of polysomnography and recognise when to refer
- Interpretation of CT scans
Behavioural aspects of respiratory lung disease
- Functional cough
- Hyperventilation syndrome
Environmental lung disease
- Knowledge of hypersensitivity pneumonitis
- Understanding the effects of active and passive smoking
- Knowledge of the effects of toxin inhalation
- Knowledge of common indoor/outdoor pollutants
Rare respiratory conditions
- Cystic fibrosis
- Obliterative bronchiolitis
- Interstitial lung disease
- Primary ciliary dyskinesia
- Bronchiolitis obliterans
- Bronchiolitis obliterans organizing pneumonia
- Pulmonary haemorrhage syndrome
- Respiratory malignancy
- Congenital central hypoventilation syndrome
- Narcolepsy
- Pulmonary vascular disease
Pulmonary complications of children with complex medical conditions
- Complex disabilities
- Neuromuscular disorders
- Musculoskeletal disorders
- Haematological or oncological conditions
Respiratory and ventilatory care of children with complex medical conditions/needs
- Peri-operative respiratory care
- Long-term respiratory management
- Long-term mechanical ventilation
- Multidisciplinary approach
Discharge planning for chronic disease management
- Multidisciplinary support
- Assessment for need of maintenance/prophylactic therapy
- Home oxygen therapy and/or respiratory support
- Follow-up planning
Sleep medicine
Other sleep disorders including:
- Behavioural sleep problems
- Parasomnias
Desirable skills
Advanced procedures
- Chest physiotherapy for collapsed lung
- Ultrasound assessment of pneumothorax, pleural effusion
- Care and assessment of tracheostomy, change of tracheostomy tube
