Jianrong Zhang

Jianrong Zhang

Graduate Research Topic

Title: Time intervals, risk factors and impact on patient outcomes in lung tumours
Years: 2020 - 
Supervisors: Profs. Jon Emery and Maarten IJzerman

Brief background and research interests

I am a thoracic surgeon in China at the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University and the National Clinical Research Center for Respiratory Disease, with medicine degrees from Guangzhou Medical University (2008-2016).

From 2017 to 2019, I studied epidemiology with a Master of Public Health degree and health policy as the Clark-Fox Policy Scholar at Washington University in St. Louis (USA). My research focuses on lung tumour but with broad research interests given multidisciplinary backgrounds: global health, thoracic surgery, oncology, primary care, health services, study design and methodology.

What led you to this research?

My whole career, including this PhD research, is derived from the loss of my elder cousin, who passed away due to delayed diagnosis and treatment for thymoma. The loss at the beginning steered my career towards medicine, aiming for advanced therapies for thoracic tumours. Upon realising that nearly half of thoracic tumours were diagnosed at the latest stage, I redirected my career path from clinical practice to transdisciplinary research, addressing delays in lung tumour diagnosis and treatment.

When seeking opportunities after the MPH degree, my primary supervisor, Prof. Jon Emery, offered this fantastic opportunity to study the timeliness of lung cancer in Australia, with a unique study cohort based on data linkage between primary care, hospital and registry datasets.