Lijun Zhao

Research Fellow - Digital Health

College of Medicine and Public Health

lijun.zhao@flinders.edu.au

Health and Medical Research Building

Flinders University Health and Medical Research Building (HMRB), Sports Rd, BEDFORD PARK, SA 5042

Dr Lijun Zhao is a Research Fellow in Digital Health in the College of Medicine and Public Health at Flinders University. Her research focuses on health service workflow mapping and automation, digital phenotyping and co-designed digital health interventions for chronic disease management, particularly cardiometabolic conditions and digital wellbeing during and after pregnancy.

Lijun completed her Bachelor of Medicine (Traditional Chinese Medicine integrated with Western Medicine) at Qinghai University, China, in 2010. She subsequently obtained a Master of Medicine (Physician Specialty: Endocrinology) from Harbin Medical University, China, where her research examined the relationship between the adipocytokine visfatin and bone metabolism in adults with type 2 diabetes.

In 2013, Lijun was appointed as a Medical Officer at the Sleep Medical Centre, Gansu Provincial Hospital, China. During this period, she initiated research at the intersection of sleep breathing disorders and type 2 diabetes, adopting multidisciplinary and patient-centred approaches to care. She also received formal training as a sleep study technician, developing strong expertise in circadian rhythms and their role in chronic disease development.

Lijun awarded her PhD from The University of Adelaide in 2022. During her PhD and postdoctoral training, she investigated how modified meal timing patterns, including intermittent fasting (IF) and time-restricted eating (TRE), can improve metabolic health in at-risk populations by reinforcing circadian rhythms. Her research has since progressed into digital health, where she co-designs AI-enabled digital nudges with patients, clinicians, and software developers to reduce evening snacking behaviour, objectively measured using continuous glucose monitoring in people with type 2 diabetes.

Lijun has extensive experience in both quantitative and qualitative research methods and is skilled in dry-lab data analytics and digital health evaluation, as well as wet-lab techniques such as PCR and RNA sequencing.

Qualifications

PhD, Medicine, University of Adelaide, Australia

Master, Medicine (Physician. specialized in Endocrinology), Harbin Medical University, China

Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery, Medicine, Qinghai University, China

Honours, awards and grants

Grants:

Australia:

Understanding the perspectives from health providers and consumers of integrating digital wellbeing intervention into standard antenatal and early childhood care pathways (FHMRI ECR Kick Start Grant, Flinders University) - 2025-2026 (CIA)
Feasibility of a diet and lifestyle program guided by real-time glucose monitoring in postmenopausal women at risk of type 2 diabetes (Flinders Foundation Seed Funding) - 2026-2028 (AI)
Improving chronic disease outcomes remotely with a digital nudge in individuals with type 2 diabetes (Diabetes Australia Research grant) - 2022-2023 (CI)

China:

The impact and mechanism of a new histaminergic target drug Pitolisant on the treatment of narcolepsy (National Natural science foundation)-2022-2027 (CI)
Efficacy and mechanism of Pitolisant and Modafinil on drowsiness and cognitive impairment caused by OSAHS (Science and technology of Gansu Province)-2021-2023 (CI)
The correlation study of the primary insomnia pathogenesis and the gene polymorphism of 5-hydroxy tryptamine transporter and neuropeptide S receptor gene (National Natural science foundation)-2016-2019 (CI)
The correlation study of Plasma endothelin, interleukin 6 and tumour necrosis factor-alpha in obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome patients with type 2 diabetes (Wushan Administration of Science and Technology) - 2015-2016 (CI)
Middle-aged and old people sleep disorders research (Health and Family Planning Commission Project in Gansu Province) - 2014-2015 (CI)

Honours and Awards:

Australia:

2023 SAHMRI “G” prize to acknowledge as an ever-present ray of light around the Lifelong Health Theme
2020 Northern Communities Health Foundation Prize ($700)
2020 Florey Medical Research Foundation Prize - Applied Science Category ($1700)
2020 Best Early Career Researcher Oral Presentation Award from ANZOS Virtual Conference 2020 ($500)
2019, 2021 High degree research travel scholarship, University of Adelaide ($1000/yr)
2017-2021 Beacon of Enlightenment Scholarship for PhD Program, University of Adelaide (Full scholarship)

China: