Professor Tien-Yin Wong is an internationally recognised physician-scientist and practicing ophthalmologist, being among the top 1 % highly cited researchers in the world, leading clinical and translational research, innovation, enterprise and industry collaboration. 

Prof. Wong has trained and worked across East and West: he studied medicine at the National University of Singapore and received his PhD from Johns Hopkins University. Later, he was Chair of Ophthalmology at the University of Melbourne, Medical Director of the Singapore National Eye Center, as well as Vice Dean of Duke-NUS Medical School. He now serves as the Founding Dean and Chair Professor of Tsinghua Medicine, a new academic health system based at China’s top university, where he’s leading one of the boldest experiments in health innovation: the creation of China’s first AI hospital.

In our conversation, Prof. Wong reflects on his journey across countries and systems, bringing lessons learned from the US, Australia and Singapore to Beijing, where he is now pioneering two major projects: building China’s first AI Hospital, as well as a new model of medical education, at the country’s top university. He shares fascinating insights about the similarities and differences between China’s healthcare system and digital ecosystem compared to the West, how to align across siloed Chinese ministries (the perennial challenge for anyone working in China!), and how he is patiently, yet ambitiously, working to achieve these pioneering feats.

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