Professor Lijing L. Yan: Changing health policy and practice

Lijing L. Yan joined the George Institute in 2009 because she wanted to help improve the health of people across the globe and to work with decision makers to really drive change to health practices and policy. Professor Yan is currently the Director of the China International Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Deputy Director of the George Institute China affiliated with the Peking University Health Science Center.

In her role at The George Institute based in Beijing, she has led or taken part in several large-scale translational trials and research projects involving many hospitals and study sites in China.

She is also an adjunct associate professor at the Department of Preventive Medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, and the Health Economics and Management Institute, Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, Beijing.

A doctoral graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, she has worked in American and Chinese academic institutions including the National Bureau of Economic Research, Northwestern University, and Peking University.

Her main areas of research are chronic disease prevention and control, cardiovascular disease and diabetes in particular, economic evaluations in health care, and integrated health management.

She is the Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator on a number of National Institutes of Health (USA) funded and China-funded research grants. In her current capacity as the Director of the Chronic Disease Center, she oversees the research, capacity development, and advocacy activities for a large network of five international academic institutions and seven Chinese institutions in their concerted efforts to combat chronic diseases in China. The flagship project of the Center is the China Rural Health Initiative (LifeSeeds Program).