Qiong Zhao, MD, PhD

Dr. Qiong Zhao graduated from Beijing Medical University in 1993. She received her PhD degree in Cell and Molecular Biology at Creighton University School of Medicine in 1998, and completed her postdoctoral research fellowship training at Harvard Medical School in 1999. She then completed her pathology internship training at the Kansas University Medical Center in 2000, and medical residency training at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in 2003. She then went on to complete Cardiology Fellowship training at the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center, and continued with one-year subspecialty training in Echocardiography in Cardiology Division at Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine. Afterwards she stayed on as an Assistant Professor in Medicine and an attending physician in the Cardiology Division at Northwestern University. In 2013 she also became the Medical Director of Echocardiography at Mercy Hospital and Medical Center, Chicago, IL. Dr. Zhao moved to North Virginia in 2014, and continued her academic career as an Associate Professor in Medicine at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine Inova Campus. She is currently an attending physician in Cardiology, and Medical Director of Echocardiography Laboratory, Inova Cardiac-Diagnostic Services-Manassas, Inova Heart and Vascular Institute. 

Dr. Zhao’s clinical research interests include echocardiography, valvular heart disease, women's heart disease, coronary artery disease, cardiomyopathy, and heart failure. She has special interest and expertise in 3D echocardiography on cardiac structure and function in structural heart diseases. Her basic/translational research is in the field of pressure overload-induced cardiac hypertrophy, heart failure and gender-related cardiovascular disease, and is currently funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI).