Hanzhang Xu

Dr. Hanzhang Xu, PhD, RN, FAAN, is an Associate Professor at the Duke University School of Nursing with joint appointments at the Duke University School of Medicine in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health and the Duke-NUS Medical School in the Health Services & Systems Research Signature Program. She also serves as a Senior Fellow at Duke's Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development and as a Faculty Affiliate at the Duke Global Health Institute.

As a clinician scientist, Dr. Xu’s research and scholarship center around social determinants of health and disparities in health care and outcomes in diverse older adult populations, with a particular focus on cardiovascular and brain health. Her current program of research falls under two themes: (i) health disparities in a multinational context, with a particular focus on the cognitive function and dementia care among older adults; and (ii) the integration of patient-reported social factors in cardiovascular outcome research.

She has led several research projects funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that leverage the strengths of big data repositories such as electronic health records (EHR), Medicare claims, national survey data and disease registries to improve the cardiovascular and brain health of older adults, with a total award amount being over $5 million. Her work in these areas has been widely cited by researchers in at least 53 countries across 6 continents, and has been featured in international media outlets, including in Yahoo!, TIME, Forbes, and the Mirror.

Dr. Xu is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and was inducted into Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing. She serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Aging and Health.

Xu earned her PhD from Duke University.