Minzhi Xing, MD, MPH

About

Dr. Minzhi Xing is a medical epidemiologist and health services researcher with a background in local and global public health practice. She has extensive experience in conducting epidemiological, patient-focused and community-engaged research and in developing public health solutions to advance health equity. The overarching goal of her work is to bridge the gap between the practice of medicine and public health by using data-driven and community-centered shared leadership approaches to create, develop, implement and evaluate interventions. Dr. Xing collaborates extensively with community-based partners, local and state health departments, and health systems to increase healthcare accessibility and improve the quality of care, with the goal of reducing barriers and eliminating disparities in health.

Before coming to UNC, Dr. Xing served as Chief Epidemiologist at DeKalb County Board of Health in Georgia, where she directed epidemiological investigations and led the agency's community responsiveness agenda during the COVID-19 pandemic and US mpox outbreak. Additionally, in partnership with global health collaborators, Dr. Xing has worked in Tanzania and Rwanda to increase access to minimally invasive image-guided procedures, initiate preventative screening, and help create self-sustaining medical training programs through international outreach and education.

Honors and Awards

National Quality Scholar
2017, American College of Medical Quality (ACMQ)

Delta Omega Public Health Honorary Society, Alpha Chapter
2017, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Representative Courses

SPHG 713 - Systems Approaches to Understanding Public Health Issues

SPHG 722 - Developing, Implementing and Evaluating Public Health Solutions

Research Activities

Dr. Xing's research interests lie at the intersection of health equity, comparative and cost-effectiveness analysis, patient-centered outcomes, and community-engaged scholarship. Her previous work focused on investigating the safety, efficacy and outcomes of minimally invasive therapies such as drug eluting bead transarterial chemoembolization (DEB-TACE) and yttrium-90 (Y90) radioembolization on liver, renal and metastatic colorectal cancers. Dr. Xing has spearheaded research using US national population data to provide answers to challenging clinical questions for which randomized clinical trials were unavailable. In addition, she has worked to increase the focus on incorporating health-related quality of life and patient-reported outcomes as a measure of patient prognosis in primary care, women's health and oncology. Her research serves to inform clinical practice guidelines and guide the development, implementation and evaluation of public health interventions.

Key Publications

Contemporary Management of Pediatric Blunt Splenic Trauma: A National Trauma Databank Analysis. Shinn K, Gilyard S, Chahine A, Fan S, Risk B, Hanna T, Johnson JO, Hawkins CM, Xing M, Duszak R Jr, Newsome J, Kokabi N.  (2021). J Vasc Interv Radiol, 32(5), 692-702.

Tanzania IR Initiative: Training the First Generation of Interventional Radiologists. Laage Gaupp FM, Solomon N, Rukundo I, Naif AA, Mbuguje EM, Gonchigar A, Xing M, Prologo JD, Silin DD, Minja FJ. (2019). J Vasc Interv Radiol., 30(12), 2036-2040.

Modeling of implementation of the new Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network/United Network for Organ Sharing policy for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. Kokabi N, Nezami N, Xing M, Ludwig JM, Strazzabosco M, Kim HS. (2019). J Comp Eff Res., 8(12), 993-1002.

Yttrium-90 Radioembolization Is Cost Effective in Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma: A SEER Medicare Population Study.  Ghodadra A, Xing M, Zhang D, Kim HS. (2019). J Vasc Interv Radiol. , 30(3), 293-297.
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Comparative Effectiveness of Thermal Ablation, Surgical Resection, and Active Surveillance for T1a Renal Cell Carcinoma: A Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)-Medicare-linked Population Study. Xing M, Kokabi N, Zhang D, Ludwig JM, Kim HS. (2018). Radiology, 288(1), 81-90.

Prospective longitudinal quality of life and survival outcomes in patients with advanced infiltrative hepatocellular carcinoma and portal vein thrombosis treated with Yttrium-90 radioembolization. Xing M, Kokabi N, Camacho JC, Kim HS. (2018). BMC Cancer, 18(1), 75.

Independent prognostic factors for posttransplant survival in hepatocellular carcinoma patients undergoing liver transplantation. Xing M, Kim HS. (2017). Cancer Med, 6(1), 26-35.

Preservation of quality of life with doxorubicin drug-eluting bead transarterial chemoembolization for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma: Longitudinal prospective study. Xing M, Webber G, Prajapati HJ, Chen Z, El-Rayes B, Spivey JR, Pillai AA, Kim HS. (2015). J Gastroenterol Hepatol, 30(7), 1167-74.

Education