Yi XIAO
MD, PhD
Associate Professor and Attending Physician in Dermatology at Xiangya Hospital, Central South University (CSU), Changsha, Hunan, China
July 2025
Yi Xiao, MD, MPH, PhD, is an Associate Professor and Attending Physician in Dermatology at Xiangya Hospital, Central South University (CSU). She trained as a dermatologist at Xiangya Hospital and earned an MPH in Global Health from the University of Washington, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, where she focused on skin disease epidemiology and disease burden.
Dr. Xiao is a member of the International Society for Atopic Dermatitis (ISAD), serves as a Councilor for the International Psoriasis Council (IPC), and is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Investigative Dermatology (JID).
Her research explores inflammatory skin diseases, primarily atopic dermatitis (AD) and psoriasis, with an emphasis on their burden, etiology, and treatment strategies. These conditions have increased rapidly over the past 30 years, particularly in fast-developing countries like China. Since 2016, with support from the Department of Dermatology at Xiangya Hospital (ranked among the top five globally for dermatology research), she has served as the leading Principal Investigator (PI) in establishing a natural population cohort of nearly 200,000 individuals in China, including elderly, public service, and university student groups. This work has updated data on disease burden, prevalence, and novel risk factors—such as PFAS, artificial light, air pollution, and ultra-processed foods—for conditions like AD, urticaria, and hand eczema in China.
She has contributed to global health initiatives, including a 2015 project on HIV/STD prevention in Zimbabwe with the China Medical Team (CMB-funded). Dr. Xiao has also been active in CMB-sponsored projects, such as serving as a core member in developing a dermatology e-platform in China based on a clinical big-data system and supporting distance continuing medical education courses for practitioners. She has received the Chinese Medical Association’s Outstanding Research Award twice. Her work connects clinical practice, public health, and global dermatology research, striving to contribute to the growing challenge of skin diseases in diverse populations.