In 2022, Professor Wong is appointed as the Founding Head and Chair Professor of Tsinghua Medicine, 清华医学部，a new academic health system based at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, with a vision to develop academic medicine and to strengthen the foundations of medical education, research and innovation at the School of Medicine and affiliated Tsinghua hospitals and institutes.
Professor Wong was Medical Director of the Singapore National Eye Centre (SNEC) from 2014-2021. He has served as Deputy Group Chief Executive Officer (Research and Education), SingHealth and Vice-Dean, Duke-NUS Medical School, National University of Singapore.
Professor Wong has also served as Professor and Head of the Department of Ophthalmology, National University of Singapore, Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology, Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital, the University of Melbourne, Australia and was the past Executive Director of the Singapore Eye Research Institute (SERI) and previous chair to SERI’s Board, where he continues as a Senior Principal Clinician Scientist (Adjunct).
Professor Wong completed medical school at National University of Singapore (NUS) as a President's Scholar, clinical ophthalmology training at SNEC, and retinal fellowships at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA, and the University of Sydney, Australia. He obtained his MPH and PhD from the Johns Hopkins University, USA.
Professor Wong leads a broad-based research focused on the epidemiology of retinal diseases, such as diabetic and hypertensive retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration, and on ocular imaging technology including the development and application of artificial intelligence (AI) for diabetic retinopathy screening and prediction of cardiovascular diseases.
Professor Wong has published more than 1,500 peer-reviewed papers, including papers in the New England Journal of Medicine and the Lancet, has given more than 500 invited named, plenary and symposium lectures, and received more than US$100million in grant funding from the National Medical Research Council in Singapore, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), USA, and the National Health and Medical Research Council, Australia. He is a Highly Cited Researcher (top 1% of all researchers)
Professor Wong is currently serving or has previously served on multiple Editorial Boards: The American Journal of Ophthalmology, British Journal of Ophthalmology, JAMA-Ophthalmology, Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Diabetes Care, Journal of Hypertension, Ophthalmologica and Lancet Digital Health. He is a Board Member of the National Medical Research Council, Singapore and has served in the Council of various professional societies, including the International Council of Ophthalmology, the Macula Society, the Asia-Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology and the Asia-Pacific Vitreo-Retina Society.
For his service and research, Prof Wong has been recognised nationally and internationally with numerous awards. He was recognised as the top researcher in any field from two leading Universities: the Outstanding Researcher Award from the National University of Singapore (winning it twice in 2004 and 2009) and the Woodward Medal from the University of Melbourne. He has received the Alcon Research Institute Award, USA, the Novartis Prize in Diabetes (Global Young Investigator), the Commonwealth Health Minister's Award for Excellence in Health and Medical Research, the Australian Society of Medical Research AMGEN Medical Research of the Year Award for "outstanding contribution to translational research", and the Arnall Patz Medal from the Macula Society, USA. Professor Wong is a two-time recipient of the Singapore Translational Researcher Award (2008 and 2014). He was conferred the Arthur Lim Professorship in Ophthalmology in 2019. He received the National Clinician Scientist Award, the President's Science Award in 2010 and the President's Technology Award in 2014. He is an elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine.