Hello, I'm Dickson.

NEUROSURGERY RESIDENT • MRI PHYSICIST • BIOMEDICAL ENGINEER

I am a physician-scientist in training, with a non-traditional background in electrical & biomedical engineering. I am interested in the curiosities of the brain, in medical imaging, and in the intersection between engineering and medicine. I am currently a resident physician in Neurosurgery at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry.

GitHub ↗Twitter ↗ResearchGate ↗LinkedIn ↗
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Education

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Electrical & Biomedical Engineering (B.Eng.)

2011 to 2015

BIOMEDICAL DEVICES • SIGNAL PROCESSING • MEDICAL IMAGING

Capstone:
‍Electrotactile display for the visually impaired

Capstone Advisors:
Dr. Hubert De Bruin, Dr. Mohamed Bakr

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Medical Biophysics
(Ph.D.)

2015 to 2019

DIFFUSION TENSOR IMAGING • MAGNETIC RESONANCE SPECTROSCOPY • IMAGE PROCESSING

Thesis:
MRI Investigations of Metabolic and Structural Brain Changes in Alzheimer’s Disease and Vitamin D Deprivation

Thesis Advisor:
Dr. Robert Bartha

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Doctor of Medicine
(M.D.)

2018 to 2022

Clinical Electives:

  • Neurosurgery
  • Physiatry
  • Orthopedic Surgery
  • Neurology
  • Neurosurgery
  • Neurosurgery
  • Neurology
  • Neurosurgery

Recent Publications

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Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy in the Hippocampus of Adult APP/PS1 mice following Chronic Vitamin D deficiency

Behavioural Brain Research
Dickson Wong, Miranda Bellyou, Alex Li, Marco A M Prado, Olivier Beauchet, Cédric Annweiler, Manuel Montero-Odasso, Robert Bartha
October 25, 2023
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2023.114713More Info ↗
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Non-invasive intradialytic percutaneous perfusion monitoring: a view to the heart through the skin

Frontiers in Nephrology
Jarrin D. Penny, Lisa Hur, Fabio R. Salerno, Dickson Wong, M. Hussain Jan, Christopher W. McIntyre
July 11, 2023
https://doi.org/10.3389/fneph.2023.1124130More Info ↗
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Hemodialysis-Related Acute Brain Injury Demonstrated by Application of Intradialytic Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy

Journal of the American Society of Nephrology
March 9, 2023
https://doi.org/10.1681/asn.0000000000000105More Info ↗
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Effects of Memantine and High Dose Vitamin D on Gait in Male APP/PS1 Alzheimer’s Disease Mice Following Vitamin D Deprivation

Journal of Alzheimer's Disease
Dana Broberg, Dickson Wong, Miranda Bellyou, Manuel Montero-Odasso, Olivier Beauchet, Cédric Annweiler, and Robert Bartha
December 22, 2021
https://doi.org/10.3233/jad-215188More Info ↗
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Effect of Memantine Treatment and Combination with Vitamin D Supplementation on Body Composition in the APP/PS1 Mouse Model of Alzheimer's Disease Following Chronic Vitamin D Deficiency

Journal of Alzheimer's Disease
Dickson Wong, Dana N Broberg, Jagroop Doad, Joseph U Umoh, Miranda Bellyou, Chris J D Norley, David W Holdsworth, Manuel Montero-Odasso, Olivier Beauchet, Cedric Annweiler, Robert Bartha
May 4, 2021
https://doi.org/10.3233/jad-201137More Info ↗
See All Publications

Projects

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MAGIQ

MAGIQ (MRS Analysis, Generation, and In-Vivo Quantification) is a software suite is used by the Bartha Lab to generate simulated prior-knowledge templates, post-process spectra, to fit spectra, and to quantify metabolite concentrations.
https://github.com/dwong263/MAGIQMore Info ↗
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BIDS for Spectroscopy

BIDS is a specification for arranging brain imaging data measured from multiple formats and modalities in a certain structure in a file system. A dataset adhering to BIDS is immediately more easily understood by other people and software. BIDS does not currently include any specification for spectroscopy data, focusing mainly on (functional) MRI. However, several modalities (MEG and EEG for example) have successfully been integrated into BIDS using the BIDS community extension proposals. Such a proposal has been made for MRS, originally by Dickson Wong.
https://forum.mrshub.org/t/bids-for-spectroscopy/83More Info ↗

Media

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Research points to early detection for Alzheimer’s disease

January 20, 2020
Researchers at Western University are looking at both brain metabolism and brain structure to pinpoint early signs of Alzheimer’s disease. By looking specifically at an area of the brain responsible for remembering past personal experiences, which is one of the first and most severe losses in Alzheimer’s disease, they were able to show specific changes even during the earliest phases of memory loss in patients.
View Media ↗
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Brain Scanning With Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy

May 9, 2018
Dickson Wong is pursuing both a medical degree and a research doctorate as a student in Western's MD/PhD program. Today on GradCast, Dickson speaks to Navaneeth and Yimin about his work using Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy to study changes in brain chemistry related to Alzheimer's disease.
View Media ↗
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Against the Dying Light

January 1, 2017
At Western, researchers are working across the spectrum of dementias - from the cellular level, to caregiver support to big questions about end of life. Ours has been a realistic, yet optimistic, journey, one engaging both minds and hearts. Told through our faculty, students, staff and community partners, Against The Dying Light shows how we are all impacted by this deadly disease.
View Media ↗