Rate My Professor Flora Wong

Associate Professor Flora Wong serves as a senior consultant neonatologist at Monash Newborn, Monash Children’s Hospital, and holds the position of Associate Professor in the Department of Paediatrics, School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health, Monash University. She also maintains appointments as Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Paediatrics and The Ritchie Centre, as well as a Monash University affiliate at the Hudson Institute of Medical Research. Her academic background includes a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) from the University of Melbourne, awarded in 1993; a PhD in Medicine from Monash University, completed in 2009 with a thesis on new bedside techniques utilizing near-infrared spectroscopy in preterm infants; and Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (FRACP). As Head of the Neonatal Brain Protection Laboratory at The Ritchie Centre and leader of the Monash Newborn Neurology and Neurodevelopment Group, comprising medical, nursing, and allied health professionals, she integrates clinical neonatology with cutting-edge research.

Flora Wong's research specializes in the mechanisms of newborn brain injury, neuroprotection, and neurodevelopment, particularly in preterm infants within neonatal intensive care units. Her investigations focus on cerebral blood flow, oxygenation, and hemodynamic responses, employing near-infrared spectroscopy for cotside monitoring and translational approaches bridging animal models, such as preterm lambs, and human clinical studies. She has attracted substantial funding exceeding $5.3 million from competitive sources, including an NHMRC Investigator Leadership Grant valued at $2,396,372 for personalizing brain care in preterm babies (2025-2029), Medical Research Future Fund Career Development Fellowship Level 2 (2019-2022), NHMRC Career Development Fellowship Level 1 (2015-2018), NHMRC Health Professional Research Training Fellowship (2012-2014), Kathleen Tinsley Fellowship (2009-2011), and others such as the Heart Foundation Vanguard Grant. Key publications include 'Cerebral Oxygenation Is Highly Sensitive to Blood Pressure Variability in Sick Preterm Infants' (PLoS ONE, 2012), 'Impaired Dynamic Autoregulation in Preterm Infants Identified Using Spatially Resolved Spectroscopy' (Pediatrics, 2008), 'Effects of Prone Sleeping on Cerebral Oxygenation in Preterm Infants' (Journal of Pediatrics, 2019), 'Dopamine Treatment During Acute Hypoxia Is Neuroprotective in the Developing Sheep Brain' (Neuroscience, 2016), 'Cerebral Haemodynamic Response to Somatosensory Stimulation in Preterm Lambs' (Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow & Metabolism, 2022), and 'Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Monitoring of Neonatal Cerebrovascular Reactivity' (Pediatric Research, 2023). Her work significantly advances neonatal cerebral pathophysiology understanding and clinical interventions to reduce brain injury risks.