Dr. Yao earned her PhD in Biomedical Informatics from Columbia University. Her previous positions include Director of Real-world Data Analytics & Innovation at Merck and Associate Professor of Biomedical Informatics at Mayo Clinic. A recognized expert in RWD, she has authored over 70 peer-reviewed publications in leading journals such as Nature Biotechnology, Genome Research, and Drug Discovery Today, with an H-index of 24.
She is a recipient of the Career Development Award in Biomedical Informatics from the National Library of Medicine (2016–2019), a Fellow of the American Medical Informatics Association (FAMIA), and former Chair of the AMIA Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (KDDM) Working Group (2020–2022). Dr. Yao currently serves as Member Engagement Co-Chair for the Oncology Special Interest Group at ISPOR, on the SAPA Executive Council, and as Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Health Services Administration and Policy at Temple University.