Mei-Sing Ong

Dr. Ong is a biomedical informatician with a multidisciplinary background in computer science, biomedical engineering, epidemiology, patient safety, pediatric health, and health services research. Her research applies computational methods to clinical data to advance understanding of disease epidemiology and to improve health care delivery. Her current research focuses on 3 specific areas: (1) improving diagnosis of under-recognized and under-diagnosed diseases; (2) development of methods to facilitate targeted treatment of childhood chronic diseases; and (3) advancing equity in health. For her work on improving diagnostic safety, Dr. Ong was selected as a scholar for the inaugural 2021-2022 National Academy of Medicine Diagnostic Excellence Award. The projects that she is currently leading include:

• An NIH-funded study focused on improving diagnosis of primary immune deficiency in underserved populations
• A PCORI-funded study to develop machine learning methods for predicting disease trajectories in juvenile idiopathic arthritis (www.leapjia.org)
• An NIH-funded study focused on addressing under-representation of underserved populations in pediatric clinical trials

Prior to joining the Department of Population Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Ong completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the Computational Health Informatics Program at Boston Children’s Hospital and the Department of Biomedical Informatics at Harvard Medical School. She received her PhD in Health Informatics from the University of New South Wales in Australia. Dr. Ong is Co-Director and a founding member of the New England Immune Deficiency Consortium (https://www.newenglandimmune.org), and she currently serves as Editorial Board Member for BMC Health Services Research and Scientific Reports.

Focus Areas:

• Health Informatics
• Big Data
• Pediatrics
• Chronic Diseases
• Health Disparities and Equity
• Patient Safety