Professor Yanzhong Wang

Professional Overview

Professor Yanzhong Wang is an internationally renowned expert in healthcare big data and health informatics, with particularly outstanding contributions to predictive modelling for major diseases. His research encompasses:

• Big Data Health Informatics, including large-scale epidemiological studies and randomised controlled trials (RCTs)
• Predictive modelling for major diseases
• Stroke epidemiology and prognosis research
• Artificialintelligence (AI)-enabled diagnostic systems and precision medicine
• Statistical genomics and genetics

Academic Achievements

• Professor Yanzhong Wang has published over 200 high-quality research articles in internationally leading medical journals (H-index 55, 30,000+ citations), including 47 publications in The Lancet and its subsidiary journals (Google Scholar profile).
• He holds several prestigious academic appointments: Statistical Editor for The Lancet Healthy Longevity and PLOS Medicine; Senior Collaborating Researcher for the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study; National Doctoral Fellowship Reviewer for the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR)

Pioneering Research

• 2024: Published an 18-year follow-up study on the natural history of post-stroke depression in The Lancet Psychiatry (Impact Factor 21), receiving extensive coverage in The Daily Mail and numerous other UK media outlets.
• 2020: Authored a 16-year longitudinal study on mortality risks and trends of ischaemic stroke in the UK (PLOS Medicine), featured in detailed reports by New Scientist and The Mirror.
• 2019: Delivered an award-winning plenary lecture to 5,000 attendees at the European Stroke Organisation Conference (ESOC) in Milan: “The Burden of Stroke in Europe: 30-Year Projections of Incidence, Prevalence and Mortality”.
• 2017: Led the compilation of the European Stroke Burden Report and presented special findings at the European Parliament.
• 2016: Developed the world’s first dynamic prediction model for acute liver failure, now widely implemented in clinical practice, with findings published in The Lancet.
• 2014: Directed an independent inquiry into the health impacts of tobacco plain packaging, presenting evidence to the UK Parliament. This research directly informed the standardised packaging legislation implemented nationwide in May 2015.
• 2013: Published a 20-year UK stroke incidence study, receiving feature coverage in The Daily Mail, The Herald, and The Mirror.

Research Funding

• In the past 5 years, as Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator, Prof. Wang has led and participated in 15 major research projects, securing a total of over £20 million in competitive research funding.

Representative Publications

1. Liu, L., Marshall, I., Li, X., Bhalla, A., Liu, L., Pei, R., Wolfe, C., O’Connell, M., & Wang, Y. (2025). Long-term outcomes of depression up to 10-years after stroke in the South London Stroke Register: a population-based study. The Lancet Regional Health – Europe, 54, Article 101324. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2025.101324 
2. PRESTIGE-AF Consortium, Wang, Y., Wafa, H. A., Wolfe, C. D. A. (2025). Direct oral anticoagulants versus no anticoagulation for the prevention of stroke in survivors of intracerebral haemorrhage with atrial fibrillation (PRESTIGE-AF): a multicentre, open-label, randomised, phase 3 trial. Lancet, 405(10482), 927-936. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(25)00333-2 
3. Ferrari, D., Arina, P., Edgeworth, J., Curcin, V., Guidetti , V., Mandreoli, F., & Wang, Y. (2024). Using interpretable Machine Learning to predict bloodstream infection and antimicrobial resistance in patients admitted to ICU: early alert predictors based on EHR data to guide antimicrobial stewardship. PLOS digital health, 3(10), Article e0000641. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000641 
4. Liu, L., Liu, L., Wafa, H., Tydeman, F., Xie, W., & Wang, Y. (2024). Diagnostic accuracy of deep learning using speech samples in depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA, 31(10), 2394-2404. https://doi.org/10.1093/jamia/ocae189 
5. Jackson, T. L., Desai, R., Wafa, H. A., Wang, Y., Peacock, J., Peto, T., Chakravarthy, U., Dakin, H., Wordsworth, S., Lewis, C., Clinch, P., Ramazzotto, L., Neffendorf, J. E., Lee, C. N., O’Sullivan, J. M., & Reeves, B. C. (2024). Stereotactic radiotherapy for neovascular age-related macular degeneration (STAR): a pivotal, randomised, double-masked, sham-controlled device trial. Lancet, 404(10447), 44-54. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(24)00687-1 
6. Liu, L., Marshall, I., Pei, R., Bhalla, A., Wolfe, C., O’Connell, M., & Wang, Y. (2024). Natural history of depression up to 18 years after stroke: a population-based South London Stroke Register study. The Lancet Regional Health – Europe, 40, Article 100882. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2024.100882 
7. Wafa, H., Marshall, I., Wolfe, C., Xie, W., Johnson, C. O., Veltkamp, R., & Wang, Y. (2024). Burden of intracerebral haemorrhage in Europe: forecasting incidence and mortality between 2019 and 2050. The Lancet Regional Health – Europe, 38, Article 100842. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2024.100842 
8. Cameron, L., Ledwaba-Chapman, L., Voong, K., Hampson, G., Forni, L. G., Seylanova, N., Harrington, D., Lim, R., Bociek, A., Wang, Y., & Ostermann, M. (2024). Vitamin D metabolism in critically ill patients with acute kidney injury: a prospective observational study. CRITICAL CARE, 28(1), Article 108. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13054-024-04869-4
9. Cao, D., Yang, Z., Dong, S., Li, Y., Mao, Z., Lu, Q., Xu, P., Shao, M., Pan, L., Han, X., Yuan, J., Fan, Q., Chen, L., Wang, Y., Zhu, W., Yu, W., & Wang, Y. (2024). PCDHGB7 hypermethylation-based Cervical cancer Methylation (CerMe) detection for the triage of high-risk human papillomavirus-positive women: a prospective cohort study. BMC Medicine, 22(1), Article 55. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-024-03267-5 (Joint last author) 
10. Shi, M., Liu, L., Wafa, H., Curcin, V., & Wang, Y. (2024). Effectiveness and safety of non-vitamin K oral anticoagulants versus warfarin in patients with atrial fibrillation and previous stroke: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Neuroepidemiology, 58(1), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1159/000534596 
11. Liu, L., Xu, M., Marshall, I., Wolfe, C., Wang, Y., & O’Connell, M. (2023). Prevalence and natural history of depression after stroke: a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies. PLoS Medicine, 20(3), e1004200. [1004200]. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004200 (Joint last author) 
12. Wang, W., Snell, L. B., Ferrari, D., Goodman, A., Price, N. M., Wolfe, C., Curcin, V., Edgeworth, J., & Wang, Y. (2022). Real-world effectiveness of steroids in severe COVID-19: a retrospective cohort study. BMC infectious diseases, 22, [776]. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-022-07750-3 
13. Yin, Y., Zhang, L., Marshall, I., Wolfe, C., & Wang, Y. (2022). Statin Therapy for Preventing Recurrent Stroke in Patients with Ischemic Stroke: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials and Observational Cohort Studies. Neuroepidemiology, 56(4), 240-249. https://doi.org/10.1159/000525672, https://doi.org/10.1159/000525672 
14. Bisquera, A., Turner, E. B., Ledwaba-Chapman, L., Dunbar-Rees, R., Hafezparast, N., Gulliford, M., Durbaba, S., Soley Bori, M., Fox-Rushby, J., Dodhia, H., Ashworth, M., & Wang, Y. (2022). Inequalities in developing multimorbidity over time: a population-based cohort study from an urban, multi-ethnic borough in the United Kingdom. The Lancet Regional Health – Europe, 12, Article 100247. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2021.100247
15. Zhang L, Li X, Wolfe C, O’Connell M, Wang Y. Diabetes as An Independent Risk Factor for Stroke Recurrence in Ischemic Stroke Patients: An Updated Meta-analysis. Neuroepidemiology. 2021 Dec 1;55(6):427-435. https://doi.org/10.1159/000519327 
16. Clery, A., Martin, F., Redmond, P., Marshall, I., McKevitt, C., Sackley, C., Manthorpe, J., Wolfe, C., & Wang, Y. (2021). Survival and outcomes for stroke survivors living in care homes: a prospective cohort study. Age and Ageing, 50(6), 2079-2087. Article afab140. https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afab140 
17. Ledwaba-Chapman, L., Bisquera, A., Gulliford, M., Dodhia, H., Durbaba, S., Ashworth, M., & Wang, Y. (2021). Applying resolved and remission codes reduced prevalence of multimorbidity in an urban multi-ethnic population. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 140, 135-148. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2021.09.005 
18. Bisquera, A., Gulliford, M., Dodhia, H., Ledwaba-Chapman, L., Durbaba, S., Soley Bori, M., Fox-Rushby, J., Ashworth, M., & Wang, Y. (2021). Identifying longitudinal clusters of multimorbidity in an urban setting: a population-based cross-sectional study. The Lancet Regional Health – Europe, 3, Article 100047. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2021.100047
19. Clery A, Bhalla A, Rudd A, Wolfe C, Wang Y. Trends in prevalence of acute stroke impairments: A population-based cohort study using the South London Stroke Register. PLoS Medicine. 2020 Oct;17(10):1-16. e1003366. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003366 
20. Wafa H, Wolfe C, Emmett E, Roth GA, Johnson CO, Wang Y. Burden of stroke in Europe: Thirty-Year Projections of Incidence, Prevalence, Deaths, and Disability-Adjusted Life Years. Stroke. 2020 Aug;51(8):2418-2427. https://doi.org/10.1161/STROKEAHA.120.029606 
21. Wafa HAM, Wolfe CDA, Bhalla A, Wang Y. Long-term trends in death and dependence after ischaemic strokes: a retrospective cohort study using the South London Stroke Register (SLSR). PLoS Medicine. 2020 Mar 12;17(3). e1003048. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003048 
22. Clery, A., Bhalla, A., Bisquera, A., Skolarus, L. E., Marshall, I., McKevitt, C., Rudd, A., Sackley, C., Martin, F. C., Manthorpe, J., Wolfe, C., & Wang, Y. (2020). Long-Term Trends in Stroke Survivors Discharged to Care Homes: The South London Stroke Register. Stroke, 51(1), 179-185. Article STROKEAHA119026618. https://doi.org/10.1161/STROKEAHA.119.026618 

Collaborations Are Welcome 

Homepage on King’s website: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/yanzhong-wang

Prof. Yanzhong Wang cordially invites collaborations across sectors in:

• Clinical Research on diagnostics and disease prevention/treatment in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), conventional medicine and integrative Chinese medicine (ICM)
• Big Data Research in TCM, conventional medicine and ICM approaches
• Artificial Intelligence Research for TCM, modern medicine, and ICM applications