Dr Victor Kong

Overview

Professor Victor Kong is a specialist trauma and acute care surgeon with international clinical, academic and educational experience spanning New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada and South Africa. He is a Consultant Trauma Surgeon at Auckland City Hospital, Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of Auckland and Professor of Surgery at Stellenbosch University in Cape Town. His career combines high-volume trauma practice in South Africa, fellowship training in Canada and subspecialist trauma practice in Australasia.

Raised in Hong Kong, Professor Kong completed his medical degree in New Zealand before undertaking surgical training in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and South Africa. He obtained Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and subsequently completed both a Master of Surgical Sciences and a Master of Surgery at the University of Edinburgh, graduating with distinction in each. He was also awarded the British Journal of Surgery Prize.

Professor Kong developed much of his early trauma experience in South Africa, working in high-volume centres with considerable exposure to penetrating, blunt and complex multisystem trauma. Alongside his clinical work, he completed a PhD at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban and an MD at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. He later returned to New Zealand to complete specialist training in general surgery and became a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.

He subsequently undertook subspecialty training in trauma surgery, becoming the first New Zealand-trained general surgeon to complete the two-year Australian and New Zealand Association for the Surgery of Trauma fellowship programme. Professor Kong later completed an international trauma fellowship at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, Canada’s largest trauma centre. He has also worked at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital in Johannesburg, one of the world’s largest trauma centres. His experience across South Africa, Canada and Australasia has given him a broad perspective on the management of major trauma across differing healthcare systems.

Professor Kong’s principal clinical and academic interests include major trauma resuscitation, operative trauma surgery, penetrating torso trauma, complex multisystem injury and multidisciplinary trauma care. He has authored more than 250 peer-reviewed publications, has an h-index of 34 and has delivered more than 80 conference presentations. He contributes to undergraduate and postgraduate education and surgical supervision in New Zealand and internationally. He is a Senior ATLS Instructor and a DSTC Instructor. His work focuses on evidence-based trauma care, operative trauma capability, trauma-system development and the trauma education.