Professor Tien Y Wong

Prof Wong is an ophthalmologist and physician-scientist who completed medical school at the National Prof Wong is an ophthalmologist and physician-scientist who completed medical school at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and a PhD from the Johns Hopkins University, USA. In 2022, he took up a new position as Chair Professor and Founding Head of Tsinghua Medicine at Tsinghua University, China.

Over the past two decades, Prof Wong has served in multiple leadership positions in Singapore and Australia. His last position was Arthur Lim Professor and Medical Director of the Singapore National Eye Center, one of the largest tertiary eye-care hospital in Asia and globally. Prof Wong has also served as Chair of Departments of Ophthalmology at NUS and University of Melbourne, Australia. Prof Wong is a retinal specialist, with a research portfolio on retinal diseases and ocular imaging, including AI. He has published >1,500 peer-reviewed papers (h-index 184), given >500 invited named, plenary, and symposium lectures globally, and received >US$100 million in grant funding.

Prof Wong has been recognized with multiple international awards, including Arnall Patz Medal (Macula Society), the Alcon Research Institute Award, the Jose Rizal Medal (Asia Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology). He has received Singapore’s President’s Science and Technology Award. He is an elected international (foreign) member of the US National Academy of Medicine.

Abstract: Medical Education and Training in the Era of AI

Medical education has evolved over more than a century since the Flexner report in
1910 which laid out the foundation for modern medical education, based on two
principles: a University-led medical education curriculum based on scientific
foundations of best medical practice coupled with hands-on “bedside” clinical
training. As the field of artificial intelligence (AI) continues to evolve, there is
significant potential for AI to be applied to modern medical education and training.
First, medical students must be familiar with principles of AI (similar to anatomy,
pathology and genetics). Medical school should incorporate the latest AI
development in the curriculum including students’ direct accessibility to information,
personalized learning through immediate feedback, and augmentation of clinical skill
development. Medical school will face barriers to implementation of AI in current
medical curriculum, partly because there requires new teaching modules and there
remain insufficient teaching faculty who are current with evolving AI technology
(e.g., AI-powered chatbots, such as ChatGPT and other large language model (LLM)).
Second, medical students must understand how AI will alter current and future
clinical practice in diagnosis and treatment and how it will alter patients’ knowledge
and behavior, and how AI will transform healthcare systems. Medical students
should learn to embrace the use of AI in their future professional careers.
Concurrently, they must also understand the limitations and significant challenges of
current and future AI technology, including issues such as ethical use of AI. Finally,
medical students and future doctors should consider how they can actively
participate in the research and development of AI models for medicine and
healthcare and not be solely a “consumer” of AI or a bystander of AI development on
patient care.