Jinping Xu, M.D., M.S., professor of Family Medicine and Public Health Sciences at the Wayne State University School of Medicine, has been appointed interim chair of that department.
Dr. Xu, whose appointment is effective Feb. 16, will lead the department while the school conducts a search for a permanent chair, said Mark E. Schweitzer, M.D., dean of the School of Medicine and vice president of WSU Health Affairs.
She replaces Tsveti Markova, M.D., who has stepped down as chair to concentrate on national issues and research.
An accomplished physician-scientist, Dr. Xu has been continuously funded for the last 15 years by various funding agencies, including the federal and state government, the American Cancer Society, and state and local foundations. She is widely published, and her research interests include primary care, cancer control and prevention, and helping patients make more informed decisions. An attending physician at the Wayne Health center at Ascension Crittenton Hospital, Dr. Xu is vice chair of the Professional Development Committee of the Michigan Academy of Family Physicians, a member of the Committee on Advancing the Science of Family Medicine Cost Analyses Working Group and the Committee on Cancer Research in Primary Care Interest Group of the North American Primary Care Research Group. She teaches medical students and residents in an ambulatory setting, and has mentored many junior members of the faculty.
Dr. Xu joined the faculty in 2001. She is a board-certified family physician with a master’s degree in clinical research design and statistical analysis. She is a member of the Division of Population Health Sciences and a faculty member of our Master’s of Public Health graduate program, as well as a member of the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute’s Population Studies and Prevention Program. Dr. Xu is the director of MetroNet, a primary care practice-based research network in metropolitan Detroit with goals of supporting evidence-based primary care and reducing racial disparities in health outcomes.
A fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians, she received her medical degree in 1985 and her master’s of medical science degree in 1988 from Shandong Medical University in China. She completed Family Medicine residency training at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2001. She received a master’s of science degree in Clinical Research Design and Statistical Analysis from the University of Michigan in 2005.