Dr. Qiong (Joan) Zhao is currently the Medical Director of Echocardiography Quality, Eastern Region, Director of Research, Echocardiography, Inova Schar Heart and Vascular, Inova Health System. She is an Associate Professor at the University of Virginia School of Medicine.
Dr. Zhao graduated from Beijing Medical University in 1993, then received her PhD degree in Cell and Molecular Biology at Creighton University School of Medicine in 1998. She completed her postdoctoral research fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in 1999. She completed medical residency training at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in 2003 and Cardiology Fellowship training at the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center in 2006 and continued with subspecialty training in Advanced Echocardiography at Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine. She then stayed on as a faculty at Northwestern University. Dr. Zhao moved to North Virginia and joined Inova Heart and Vascular Institute in 2015. She was the Medical Director of Echocardiography at the Inova Fairfax Medical Center from 2019-2023.
Dr. Zhao has special interest and expertise in 3D echocardiography and strain imaging, structural heart diseases, pulmonary hypertension and cardio-oncology, and is currently the PI and co-investigator of multiple clinical trials and studies in Inova. She has been serving on various ASE Committees since 2010, currently serving on the Foundation Board and on ASE’s Guidelines and Standards Committee. She is a council member of the ACC-Virginia Chapter, member of Board of Trustees and Past Clinical President of the Chinese American Academy of Cardiology.