Irene Wong obtained her PhD from the School of Public Health at the University of Hong Kong. She also holds an MPhil in Statistics and a master's degree in Medical Sciences. Currently she is Research Assistant Professor in the School of Public Health, undertaking research in the areas of health economics and cancer epidemiology.  She has published widely in public health science on health economics and policy, cancer epidemiology, social epidemiology and income inequality, the ecology of health care, and inpatient utilization patterns.

Earlier in her career Irene developed and validated with her collaborators a clinical prediction rule for diagnosing severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in the Emergency Department of Hong Kong during the 2003 SARS epidemic. Since then, she has conducted research projects relating to breast cancer disease burden and breast cancer screening, and contributed to debates over related health policies in Hong Kong. By using statistical and decision analytic models, her work has also contributed to the understanding of public health impact and the cost-effectiveness of population preventive strategies and alternative treatment interventions for breast cancer. Irene is currently working on three major collaborative projects. The first involves developing and evaluating decision aids on breast cancer screening for Hong Kong Chinese women, with the goal of helping women make informed decisions concerning their own breast cancer screening. The second involves evaluating the cost-effectiveness of health care interventions, in particular for cancer prevention and control (e.g. colorectal and gastric cancer), using simulation modeling. The third concerns economic analyses for diabetes care management.

In recognition of her research contributions to mammography screening policies for breast cancer among Chinese women, Irene received the Excellent Research Award (Health and Health Services Research) from the Food and Health Bureau, Hong Kong in 2010.