Brian Wong, MD

Dr. Wong has been at UC Irvine since 1990 and has progressed through the academic ranks from intern, resident, fellow, clinical instructor, to presently his position as Professor, Vice-Chairman, and Fellowship Director in Otolaryngology- Head and Neck Surgery.  Dr. Wong’s clinical practice is focused on rhinoplasty surgery, and developed the UC Irvine Rhinoplasty Course.  He has also chaired over a dozen general CME courses for UCI Otolaryngology in Palm Springs and Disneyland.  He was the co-course director for the AAFPRS Rhinoplasty course in 2019 in Orlando Florida, and was the director again for the same course in 2021 in Miami Beach, Florida that was cancelled by COVID.  He has lectured at the World Health Organization, Tsukuba University (Japan), Asan Medical Center (Korea), Royal College of Surgeons (London), along with invited presentations in Taipei, Vina Del Mar- Chile, Lisbon, Regensburg, Rio De Janeiro, Chongqing, and Vancouver.

Since the time of joining at the faculty at UC Irvine in 1997, Dr. Wong’s been continuously funded by NIH (Principal Investigator on 7 grants) and Department of Defense for work focused on treating disorders of the head, neck, upper airway including facial reconstruction. His total funding to date exceeds $15M, and he has balanced this with a clinical practice focused on facial plastic and reconstructive surgery. Technology developed in his lab has moved from basic concept to commercialization and his work has resulted in already the founding two companies.  In addition to working with local companies, Dr. Wong has collaborated with a number of different companies throughout United States.

Nationally he has been recognized by organizations varying from otolaryngology, facial plastic surgery, biomedical engineering, and biophotonic societies.  He recently was recognized as a fellow by the SPIE, the International Society for Optics and Photonics, an honor accorded to less than 1% of the membership, and very few MDs.  Dr. Wong is editor in chief of Lasers in Surgery and Medicine (John Wiley Co.).  He has served as a Senior Examiner for the American Board of Otolaryngology.  He was a member of a standing NIH study section for over 14 years.  He was Vice President of the Triological society.  He has mentored 20 postdoctoral fellows, 18 clinical fellows, 4 graduate students, 35 surgical residents in his lab, over 50 medical students, and over 75 undergraduates. He has had numerous international scholars and faculty members take sabbatical years with him. His pride is in the training of his residents and fellows.

Dr. Wong was born and raised in Los Angeles. He studied biomedical/electrical engineering at the University of Southern California and Oxford University.  He completed his medical studies at Johns Hopkins.  Dr. Wong completed his residency and fellowship training at the University of California Irvine.