Qiong “Joan” Zhao, MD, PhD, FACC, FASE

Title/role: Regional Medical Director, Cardiac Diagnostics, Inova Health System; Director of Research, Cardiac Diagnostics, Inova Heart and Vascular Institute 

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 at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center- Harvard Institute of Medicine 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 completed Cardiology Fellowship training at the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center, and continued with one-year subspecialty training in Advanced Echocardiography in Cardiology Division at Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine. She then stayed on as an Assistant Professor in Medicine and an attending physician in the Cardiology Division at Northwestern University. In 2013, she became the Medical Director of Echocardiography at Mercy Hospital and Medical Center, Chicago, IL. Dr. Zhao moved to North Virginia in 2014 and joined Inova in 2015. She was the Medical Director of Echocardiography at the Inova Fairfax Medical Center from 2019 to 2023. She is currently an attending physician in Cardiology, and Regional Medical Director of the Cardiac Diagnostics of the Inova Health System, and Director of the Research, Cardiac Diagnostics of the Inova Heart and Vascular Institute, Inova Fairfax Medical Center. She is an Associate Professor at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. Dr. Zhao has received multiple travel grant awards from national medical associations. In 2006 and 2007, she received the Northwestern Young Investigator Award for her research. In 2008, she was awarded the prestigious Jay N. Cohn New Investigator Award from the Heart Failure Society of America. Dr. Zhao’s clinical research interests include Echocardiography, women's heart disease, structural heart disease, cardiomyopathy, and heart failure. She has special interest and expertise in 3D echocardiography and strain imaging, structural heart diseases, pulmonary hypertension and cardio-oncology, and is currently the PI of Echo clinical trials and co-investigator in multiple clinical trials in Inova. Her basic/translational research is in the field of pressure overload-induced cardiac hypertrophy, heart failure, which was funded by NHLBI.

Dr. Zhao has been active in academic activities and services. She has been serving on the American Society of Echocardiography Committees from 2010- present. She is currently the Clinical President of the Chinese American Academy of Cardiology.

 Hospital Affiliation Inova Fairfax Medical Campus

 Education Beijing Medical University, Beijing, China Creighton University School of Medicine, Omaha, NE

 Residency University of Massachusetts, Worcester, MA

 Fellowship University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center, Chicago, IL

 Board Certifications Cardiovascular Disease Echocardiography Nuclear Cardiology

 Awards/Associations/Appointments

Northwestern Young Investigator Award, 2006 & 2007

Jay N. Cohn New Investigator Award from the Heart Failure Society of America, 2007

American Society of Echocardiography, Fellow, serving on Research / FASE/ Membership Committees, Education Committee, COPE Council, 2010-current

American College of Cardiology, Fellow

Chinese American Academy of Cardiology, Clinical President (2019-2022)