Dr Carlos Wong

Dr Carlos Wong joined the Leicester Diabetes Centre and NIHR Leicester Biomedical Research Centre in May 2026. Prior to joining Leicester, he was an Associate Professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Senior Research Director at the Laboratory of Data Discovery for Health, and an Assistant Professor at the University of Hong Kong. He received his BSc in Mathematics (First Class Honour) and MPhil in Mathematics in the Hong Kong University of Science and University, and PhD in the University of Hong Kong. 

Dr Wong has over a decade of experience in health economic analysis and the analysis of routinely collected data using electronic health records, and more recently focused on the real-world effectiveness and safety of RSV vaccine as well as development and application of AI tools in healthcare. His research has been supported by the EuroQol Research Foundation, the Hong Kong government Innovation and Technology Commission, Food and Health Bureau, Research Grants Council, and industry partners, securing over £1 million in research funding as a principal investigator or co-principal investigator. He and his team reported the world’s first real-world evidence on the effectiveness of molnupiravir and nirmatrelvir/ritonavir against mortality, hospitalization, and in-hospital outcomes among patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection during the Omicron wave. He has been ranked in the Stanford's Top 2% Scientists worldwide for years. 

He has served as a Statistical Advisor for the Hong Kong Medical Journal since 2017, a Editorial Board Member for the Primary Care Diabetes and a EuroQol Group member since 2021, an external reviewer of UK funding applications, and an academic reviewer of journals including The Lancet, The Lancet Infectious Diseases, The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, BMJ, Diabetes Care and Nature Communications.

Highlighted publications

Generating real-world evidence using electronic health records

• Carlos KH Wong, Kristy TK Lau, Matthew SH Chung, Ivan CH Au, Ka Wang Cheung, Eric HY Lau, Yasmin Daoud, Benjamin J. Cowling, Gabriel M. Leung. Nirmatrelvir/ritonavir use in pregnant women with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron infection: a target trial emulation. Nature Medicine 2024;30:112-116. DOI: 10.1038/s41591-023-02674-0
• Carlos KH Wong, Kristy TK Lau, Ivan CH Au, Eric HY Lau, Leo LM Poon, Ivan FN Hung, Benjamin J Cowling, Gabriel M Leung. Viral burden rebound in hospitalised patients with COVID-19 receiving oral antivirals in Hong Kong: a population-wide retrospective cohort study. The Lancet Infectious Diseases 2023;23(6):683-695. DOI: 10.1016/ S1473-3099(22)00873-8
•  Carlos KH Wong, Kristy TK Lau, Gabriel M Leung. Real-world effectiveness of nirmatrelvir–ritonavir against BA.4 and BA.5 omicron SARS-CoV-2 variants. The Lancet Infectious Diseases 2023;23(6):639-640, DOI: 10.1016/S1473-3099(23)00056-7 (Commentary)
• Carlos KH Wong, Ivan CH Au, Kristy TK Lau, Eric HY Lau, Benjamin J Cowling, Gabriel M Leung. Real-world effectiveness of molnupiravir and nirmatrelvir/ritonavir against mortality, hospitalization, and in-hospital outcomes among community-dwelling, ambulatory COVID-19 patients during the BA.2.2 wave in Hong Kong: an observational study. Lancet 2022;400(10359):1213-1222. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(22)01586-0
•  Carlos KH Wong, Ivan CH Au, Kristy TK Lau, Eric HY Lau, Benjamin J Cowling, Gabriel M Leung, Real-world effectiveness of early molnupiravir and nirmatrelvir/ritonavir among hospitalized, non-oxygen-dependent COVID-19 patients on admission during Hong Kong’s Omicron BA.2 wave: an observational study. The Lancet Infectious Diseases 2022;22(12):1681-1693. DOI: 10.1016/S1473-3099(22)00507-2
• Carlos KH Wong, Lung Yi Mak, Ivan CH Au, Francisco TT Lai, Xue Li, Eric YF Wan, Celine SL Chui, Esther WY Chan, Wing Yiu Cheng, Franco WT Cheng, Man Fung Yuen, Ian CK Wong, Risk of acute liver injury following the mRNA (BNT162b2) and inactivated (CoronaVac) COVID-19 vaccines. Journal of Hepatology 2022;77(5):1339-1348, DOI: 10.1016/j.jhep.2022.06.032

Development and application of AI

• Matrix MH Fung, Eric HM Tang, Tingting Wu, Yan Luk, Ivan CH Au, Xiaodong Liu, Victor HF Lee, Chun Ka Wong, Zhili Wei, Wing Yiu Cheng, Isaac CY Tai, Joshua WK Ho, Jason WH Wong, Brian HH Lang, Kathy SM Leung, Zoie SY Wong, Joseph T Wu, Carlos KH Wong. Developing a named entity framework for thyroid cancer staging and risk level classification using large language models. npj Digital Medicine 2025;8:134. DOI: 10.1038/s41746-025-01528-y