Yizhe Xu

Yizhe Xu, MSc, PhD

Languages spoken: English

Academic Information

Departments Primary - Internal Medicine , Adjunct - Population Health Sciences

Divisions: Epidemiology

Yizhe (Crystal) Xu is a research assistant professor in the Division of Epidemiology. She did her postdoc at the Center for Biomedical Informatics Research (BMIR) at Stanford University, advised by Dr. Nigam Shah. She graduated from the Division of Biostatistics, Department of Population Health Sciences at the University of Utah in 2020. Yizhe’s primary research interests are in causal inference and machine learning, and she is passionate about applying advanced methods in statistics to answer meaningful questions in biomedical research, using large-scale EHR or claims data as well as data from clinical trials. She is interested in estimating treatment effect heterogeneity, identifying the optimal individualized treatment rule, and evaluating the tradeoff between the effectiveness and cost or adverse effects of treatment. Her major clinical research areas are in cardiovascular disease, dementia, and cancer.

Research Statement

I am interested in causal inference, semiparametric models, and machine learning. I am passionate about applying advanced methods in statistics and machine learning to answer meaningful questions in biomedical research. My recent research has focused on deriving and evaluating risk stratification tools, estimating heterogeneous treatment effects, and identifying individualized treatment rules using data from randomized controlled trials or insurance claims and electronic health records

Education History

Postdoctoral Training Stanford University
 Postdoctoral Scholar
Doctoral Training University of Utah School of Medicine
 PhD
Graduate Training University of Utah School of Medicine
 MSc
Undergraduate Liaoning Medical University
 BSc

Selected Publications

Journal Article

  1. Xu Y, Foryciarz A, Steinberg E, Shah NH (2023). Clinical utility gains from incorporating comorbidity and geographic location information into risk estimation equations for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. J Am Med Inform Assoc. (Read full article)
  2. Xu Y, Greene TH, Bress AP, Bellows BK, Zhang Y, Zhang Z, Kolm P, Weintraub WS, Moran AS, Shen J (2022). An efficient approach for optimizing the cost-effective individualized treatment rule using conditional random forest. Stat Methods Med Res, 31(11), 2122-2136. (Read full article)
  3. Lu J, Sattler A, Wang S, Khaki AR, Callahan A, Fleming S, Fong R, Ehlert B, Li RC, Shieh L, Ramchandran K, Gensheimer MF, Chobot S, Pfohl S, Li S, Shum K, Parikh N, Desai P, Seevaratnam B, Hanson M, Smith M, Xu Y, Gokhale A, Lin S, Pfeffer MA, Teuteberg W, Shah NH (2022). Considerations in the reliability and fairness audits of predictive models for advance care planning. Front Digit Health, 4, 943768. (Read full article)
  4. Xu Y, Greene TH, Bress AP, Sauer BC, Bellows BK, Zhang Y, Weintraub WS, Moran AE, Shen J (2020). Estimating the optimal individualized treatment rule from a cost-effectiveness perspective. Biometrics, 78(1), 337-351. (Read full article)
  5. Pfohl SR, Zhang H, Xu Y, Foryciarz A, Ghassemi M, Shah NH (2022). A comparison of approaches to improve worst-case predictive model performance over patient subpopulations. Sci Rep, 12(1), 3254. (Read full article)
  6. Corbett KL, Presson AP, Zhang C, Xu Y, Bratton SL, Dixon RR (2020). Does Non-Neurologic Multiorgan Dysfunction After Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest among Children Admitted in Coma Predict Outcome 1 Year Later? J Pediatr Intensive Care, 10(3), 188-196. (Read full article)
  7. Bress AP, Greene T, Derington CG, Shen J, Xu Y, Zhang Y, Ying J, Bellows BK, Cushman WC, Whelton PK, Pajewski NM, Reboussin D, Beddu S, Hess R, Herrick JS, Zhang Z, Kolm P, Yeh RW, Basu S, Weintraub WS, Moran AE, SPRINT Research Group (2021). Patient Selection for Intensive Blood Pressure Management Based on Benefit and Adverse Events. J Am Coll Cardiol, 77(16), 1977-1990. (Read full article)
  8. Sauer BC, Chen W, Xu Y, Shen J, Accortt NA, Collier DH, Cannon GW (2020). Empirical evidence of disease activity thresholds used to indicate need for major therapeutic change in US veterans with rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritis Res Ther, 22(1), 253. (Read full article)
  9. Bailey TL, Stephens AR, Adeyemi TF, Xu Y, Presson AP, Aoki SK, Maak TG (2018). Traction Time, Force and Postoperative Nerve Block Significantly Influence the Development and Duration of Neuropathy Following Hip Arthroscopy. Arthroscopy, 35(10), 2825-2831. (Read full article)
  10. Kazmers NH, Stephens AR, Presson AP, Xu Y, Feller RJ, Tyser AR (2018). Comparison of Direct Surgical Costs for Proximal Row Carpectomy and Four-Corner Arthrodesis. J Wrist Surg, 8(1), 66-71. (Read full article)
  11. Kazmers NH, Presson AP, Xu Y, Howenstein A, Tyser AR (2018). Cost Implications of Varying the Surgical Technique, Surgical Setting, and Anesthesia Type for Carpal Tunnel Release Surgery. J Hand Surg Am, 43(11), 971-977.e1. (Read full article)
  12. Kwok AC, Edwards K, Donato DP, Tatro E, Xu Y, Presson AP, Agarwal JP (2018). Operative Time and Flap Failure in Unilateral and Bilateral Free Flap Breast Reconstruction. J Reconstr Microsurg, 34(6), 428-435. (Read full article)
  13. Kazmers NH, Judson CH, Presson AP, Xu Y, Tyser AR (2018). Evaluation of Factors Driving Cost Variation for Distal Radius Fracture Open Reduction Internal Fixation. J Hand Surg Am, 43(7), 606-614.e1. (Read full article)
  14. Pirozzi CS, Mendoza DL, Xu Y, Zhang Y, Scholand MB, Baughman RP (2018). Short-Term Particulate Air Pollution Exposure is Associated with Increased Severity of Respiratory and Quality of Life Symptoms in Patients with Fibrotic Sarcoidosis. Int J Environ Res Public Health, 15(6). (Read full article)
  15. Workman JK, Wilkes J, Presson AP, Xu Y, Heflin JA, Smith JT (2017). Variation in Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis Surgery: Implications for Improving Healthcare Value. J Pediatr, 195, 213-219.e3. (Read full article)
  16. Keihani S, Xu Y, Presson AP, Hotaling JM, Nirula R, Piotrowski J, Dodgion CM, Black CM, Mukherjee K, Morris BJ, Majercik S, Smith BP, Schwartz I, Elliott SP, DeSoucy ES, Zakaluzny S, Thomsen PB, Erickson BA, Baradaran N, Breyer BN, Miller B, Santucci RA, Carrick MM, Hewitt T, Burks FN, Kocik JF, Askari R, Myers JB, Genito-Urinary Trauma Study Group (2018). Contemporary management of high-grade renal trauma: Results from the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma Genitourinary Trauma study. J Trauma Acute Care Surg, 84(3), 418-425. (Read full article)
  17. Awad AW, Karsy M, Sanai N, Spetzler R, Zhang Y, Xu Y, Mahan MA (2017). Impact of removed tumor volume and location on patient outcome in glioblastoma. J Neurooncol, 135(1), 161-171. (Read full article)