Zequan Wang
Assistant Professor
PhD, RN
She/Her/Hers
Dr. Wang’s research program focuses on symptom science among adults living with cardiovascular disease. Her work examines how symptoms, such as pain, sleep disturbance, fatigue, and dyspnea, co-occur, change over time, and influence functional performance, quality of life, and other clinical outcomes (e.g., all-cause mortality). Dr. Wang investigates clinical, behavioral, and community-level/neighborhood factors associated with symptom burden and disease progression, with a particular focus on heart failure and cardiopulmonary multimorbidity. Her work applies advanced quantitative methods, including longitudinal modeling, survival analysis, and geographic information systems, to leverage complex patterns across individuals and environments.
During her doctoral training at the UConn, she conducted longitudinal analyses to identify predictors of symptom cluster transitions in older adults with heart failure and served as a co-investigator on funded studies examining biological and clinical correlates of pain experiences. She has also led mixed-methods research exploring caregiving and nursing roles in heart failure management. As a postdoctoral researcher, Dr. Wang expanded her work through secondary analyses of NIH/NINR-funded datasets, focusing on sleep health, cardiopulmonary disease, and community-level contextual factors. Her scholarly work has resulted in more than 20 peer-reviewed publications.
Dr. Wang’s current and future research integrates multimodal data sources, including large national datasets, wearable and sensor-based measures, and geospatial indicators, to examine longitudinal patterns of disease progression and related outcomes in chronic illness. Her work informs data-driven approaches to symptom management and cardiovascular disease care.
Research/Scholarship Interests:
- Cardiovascular disease
- Symptom science
- Sleep and circadian rhythm
- Large-Scale Datasets
Education:
- Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Connecticut School of Nursing, 2023-2025
- D., University of Connecticut School of Nursing, 2023
- Med in nursing, Jilin University, 2018
- BS in Nursing, Harbin Medical University, 2014
Honors & Awards:
- Finalist, Martha N. Hill Early Career Investigator Award, American Heart Association, 2023
- Carolyn Ladd Widmer Award for Outstanding Research, 2023
- Sigma Theta Tau Mu Chapter Research Grant Award, 2022
- University of Connecticut Pre-doctoral fellowship, 2021-2022
- University of Connecticut Doctoral Student Travel Fellowship, 2021
Selected Publications: (preferably a link to a publications list on PubMed, Google Scholar, etc. But could be CV PDF, too.)
