Christelle Xiong, a BIDS masters’ student, is currently focused on clinical informatics, especially using real-world health data to support clinical decision-making and better understand disease trajectories. Before starting the BIDS program, Christelle received her bachelor’s degree in Data Science and Big Data Technology at The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Christelle hopes to develop digital twin paradigms and methodologies that integrate human and disease modeling to improve prevention, track progression, and optimize treatment for patients with complex multi-system conditions and comorbidities. She is particularly interested in applications in psychiatry, cardiology, rheumatology, and critical care.
At the OHDSI 2025 Global Symposium, Christelle presented her work on AI-driven data extraction related to steroid dosages and developed an open-source R package for dosage calculation. Her work has also recently been published in the International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics, which was presented at the 2025 AMIA Annual Symposium as podium abstract. Another work, “Synergy of diagnosis coding between administrative claims and electronic health records of large patient populations across multiple healthcare organizations,” was published in the April 2026 issue of JAMIA Open.
Christelle remarked, “If Johns Hopkins is an ocean of knowledge and opportunity, the BIDS program has been the filter that helped me turn it into something I could truly absorb. It not only helped me make use of the vast resources around me, but also taught me how to build my own tools to grow, contribute, and move forward in my career.”
Christelle’s favorite part of her masters’ program so far has been the opportunity to work on meaningful healthcare projects while learning from faculty and peers with very different backgrounds. She has especially enjoyed being in an environment where data science, medicine, and innovation come together. According to Christelle, “The faculty have been very open-minded and genuinely willing to discuss ideas with students, and when I bring up research questions I care about, all of them are generous in helping me think through them and connect me with useful resources. Just as importantly, my peers have been incredibly After finishing the master’s program, Christelle hopes to continue pursuing research in biomedical informatics, especially in clinical decision support and AI for healthcare, and eventually contribute to building more effective and patient-centered healthcare technologies.