Prof Wong Tien Yin

Prof Wong completed medical school at the National University of Singapore (NUS), and obtained an MPH and PhD from Johns Hopkins University, USA. He completed residency clinical training in ophthalmology at the Singapore National Eye Centre, with retinal fellowships at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA and the University of Sydney, Australia. Prof Wong is a physician-scientist-leader, and an internationally renowned ophthalmologist and retinal specialist.

In 2021, Prof Wong was appointed the Founding Head and Senior Vice-Chancellor of Tsinghua Medicine, a new academic health system integrating multiple Schools and teaching hospitals, based at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. For his contribution, he was awarded the Beijing Great Wall Friendship Award in 2024, the highest award for major contributions to China as a foreign national, given once every 3 years.

Prof Wong has held prior senior academic and clinical leadership appointments in Singapore and Australia. From 2014 to 2021, Prof Wong was Arthur Lim Professor of Ophthalmology and Medical Director at SNEC. During this time, Prof Wong was concurrently Deputy Group CEO (Research and Education) at SingHealth and Vice-Dean at Duke-NUS Medical School. Prior to these, Prof Wong was Group Director Research, SingHealth, Executive Director, Singapore Eye Research Institute (SERI), Chair of Ophthalmology at NUS and Chair of Ophthalmology at University of Melbourne, Australia.

Prof Wong is a physician-scientist-innovator who has conducted broad-based research on the development and application of artificial intelligence (AI) and digital technology in medicine and healthcare, particularly to the screening, detection and prevention of eye diseases. He has published more than 1600 papers, including papers in the New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, JAMA and Nature Medicine. He has a H-index of more than 220, is a multi-year Highly Cited Researcher (2018, 2020-25), given more than 600 invited plenary and symposium lectures, received more than US$100 million in grant funding.

Prof Wong serves or has previously served on Editorial Boards of Lancet Digital Health, NEJM-AI, JAMA-Ophthalmology, Diabetes Care, amongst many others. He serves or has served on Boards, Councils or Trustees of the National Medical Research Council Singapore, the International Council of Ophthalmology, the Asia Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology (APAO), the Asia Pacific Vitreo-Retinal Society (APVRS), the Macula Society, the Academy of Medicine Singapore, the Singapore Medical Council and other bodies. He is the current elected Board Trustee and Vice-President of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO). He was past President of the College of Ophthalmologists, Singapore, and the current President of the Asia-Pacific Ocular Imaging Society (APOIS) as well as the current President of the APVRS. He is an elected member of the Academia Ophthalmological Internationalis (AOI) and the American Ophthalmological Society (AOS).

Prof Wong has been recognised with numerous awards, including the Commonwealth Health Minister's Award, the Arnall Patz Medal (Macula Society), the Alcon Research Institute Award, the Jose Rizal Medal (APAO), the Friedenwald Award (ARVO). He has received Singapore's President's Science Award and President's Science and Technology Award.

He is an elected Fellow of four academies: the Singapore National Academy of Sciences, the US National Academy of Medicine, the Royal Society in UK and the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences. He is also an elected fellow of the UK Royal Society.