Rate My Professor Cynthia Wong

Cynthia A. Wong, MD, is Professor of Anesthesia in the Carver College of Medicine at the University of Iowa. She served as Chair and Departmental Executive Officer of the Department of Anesthesia for a decade, leading significant expansions in clinical services such as non-operating room anesthesia support in the Digestive Health Center and catheterization lab, growth of the Labor and Delivery Unit, and implementation of advanced practice provider care in the Surgical and Neurosciences Intensive Care Unit and Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit. Prior to her leadership role at Iowa, Dr. Wong was faculty at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine from 1988 to 2015. Her academic background includes an MD from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, followed by residency and fellowship training in anesthesiology at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center in Chicago.

Dr. Wong specializes in obstetric anesthesiology, with research interests encompassing neuraxial labor analgesia, postpartum hemorrhage management, labor pain optimization via epidurals, cesarean delivery outcomes, patient-controlled epidural analgesia, and global health initiatives in maternity care. She serves as editor of the world's leading textbook, Chestnut’s Obstetric Anesthesia: Principles and Practice, and holds positions on the editorial boards of major anesthesiology journals. With 214 publications and over 6,151 citations, her key works include "Association between breakthrough labor pain, patient-controlled epidural analgesia use, and numeracy: A pilot observational study" (2023), "A Century of Progress and Collaboration Between Obstetric Anesthesiologists, Anesthesia & Analgesia, and the International Anesthesia Research Society" (2022), "Association of Medicaid Expansion With Neuraxial Labor Analgesia Use in the United States: A Retrospective Cross-Sectional Analysis" (2022), and "Epidural labour analgesia and autism spectrum disorder: is the current evidence sufficient to dismiss an association?" (2022). Dr. Wong contributes to the field through committee roles, including the Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research Finance Committee, and delivers lectures on obstetric anesthesia topics.