Expertise and Research Interests:

Dr. Fung received his medical degree from the University of Hong Kong, Master of Science degree (Computer-based Information Systems) from the University of Sunderland, UK; and Master of Arts degree (Biomedical Informatics) from Columbia University, New York. Combining the clinical knowledge of his long surgical career, the experience in building real-life medical information systems and the skills acquired from formal informatics education, Dr. Fung’s research focuses on the use of biomedical terminologies in electronic health records. He aims to provide practical solutions to overcome obstacles in the adoption of terminology standards. The subjects of his research include inter-terminology mapping, problem list terminologies and drug terminologies.

Professional Activities:

He serves as the chair of the Mapping Special Interest Group of the International Health Terminology Standards Development Organization (IHTSDO) since 2009. He is a member of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA). He is a member of the NLM’s UMLS Steering Committee.

Honors and Awards:

Since joining NLM in 2003, Dr. Fung has received 2 individual and 5 group NLM Special Act or Service Awards. He received an individual NIH Merit Award in 2009 for sustained excellence in multiple initiatives involving applied medical terminology research.

Publications:

Fung KW, Baik SH, Baye F, Zheng Z, Huser V, McDonald CJ. Effect of common maintenance drugs on the risk and severity of COVID-19 in elderly patients. PLoS ONE 17(4): e0266922. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266922.

Wijesiriwardene T, Nguyen V, Bajaj GK, Yip HY, Javangula V, Mao Y, Fung KW, Sheth A, Parthasarathy S, Bodenreider O. UBERT: A Novel Language Model for Synonymy Prediction at Scale in the UMLS Metathesaurus. arXiv:2204.12716 https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2204.12716.

Williams ND, Huser V, Rhame F, Mayer CS, Fung KW. The changing patterns of comorbidities associated with human immunodeficiency virus infection, a longitudinal retrospective cohort study of Medicare patients. Medicine (Baltimore). 2021;100(16):e25428. doi:10.1097/MD.0000000000025428.

Baik SH, Fung K-W, McDonald CJ. The mortality risk of Proton Pump Inhibitors in 1.9 Million US Seniors: an extended Cox survival analysis. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cgh.2021.01.014.

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