Dong (Roman) Xu, Ph.D., MPP, Professor of Global Health and Health Systems, Executive Deputy Director of Institute for Global Health (SIGHT) , Director of the Center for World Health Organization Studies, and PI of Acacia Lab for Implementation Science at Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China. His research focuses on implementation research for health systems and services improvement in global health. He leads several large studies funded by China NSFC and NSSFC, US CMB, Swiss SDC, and UK NIHR, including the Primary Health Care Quality Cohort in China (ACACIA) using unannounced standardized patients and smartphone-based virtual patients, Silk Road Labs for Health System Strengthening in Nepal, Mozambique and Ghana, an implementation trial for a stroke guideline in China, and a Shared Medical Appointment trial for diabetes (SMART).
Dr. Xu earlier held key positions at the China Medical Board, Harvard Medical School’s Harvard Medical International, Medtronic Inc., and the Chinese Medical Association. He played a prominent role in introducing academic global health and implementation science to China, and made significant contributions towards the establishment of several major global health or health policy centers in the country.In the past five years, he has published over 60 peer-reviewed papers in prestigious journals such as Lancet, Plos Medicine, American Journal of Public Health, and Implementation Science.
Dr. Xu is a founding board member of the China Health Policy and Management Society (CHPAMS), the commissioner of the Lancet Commission on Evidence-Based Implementation and Lancet Primary Health Care Commission in China, co-editor-in-chief of Implementation Science Communications, and Deputy Editor-in-chief of Global Health Research and Policy. He also serves as an associate editor/editorial member of Tropical Medicine & International Health, The Journal of Healthcare Management Standards, and Advances in Simulation. Dr. Xu received his Ph.D. in Global Health Implementation Science from the University of Washington, a master's in Public Policy from Harvard University, and a degree in Medicine and English from Sichuan University.
