Xinhui Duan, Ph.D.

Xinhui Duan, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Radiology at UT Southwestern Medical Center and a member of its Medical Physics section. 

The Radiology department provides me opportunities to pursue excellence in clinical care, educate future leaders in radiology and medical physics and innovate cutting-edge imaging technologies. 

Originally from China, Dr. Duan received a bachelor's degree in nuclear engineering and nuclear science, as well as a doctoral degree in nuclear technology and applications from Tsinghua University in Beijing. He then received clinical training in computed tomography (CT) imaging through a fellowship program at the Mayo Graduate School in Rochester, Minnesota.

He is certified by the American Board of Radiology in Diagnostic Medical Physics.

In his current role, Dr. Duan is the Associate Division Chief of Medical Physics Division and responsible for diagnostic medical physics support for Clements University Hospital and its associated clinics, which is to ensure the acquisition of high-quality images while providing appropriate radiation protection to patients and staff.

Research activities and interests

At UT Southwestern, Dr. Duan's main research intest is CT imaging, especially spectral CT and phonton-counting CT imaging. This research and other scholarly activities have allowed him to author more than 50 peer-reviewed publications and to have had his research work presented in talks and posters at scientific conferences. Dr. Duan has also been invited to share up-to-date information on spectral CT with his physicist peers at national professional conferences.

A commitment to service

Dr. Duan is actively engaged in service and citizenship activities at the national, institutional and departmental levels. He is the chair of Task Group 392,  Characterization and Quality Control of Automatic Exposure control System in CT, American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM). He also works as a member of several AAPM task groups.

Since 2023, he has served as the associate editor of Journal of Applied Clinical Medical Physics, the clinical journal of the AAPM. He also serves as a reviewer for Radiology, the Journal of Computed Assisted Tomography, American Journal of Roentgenology, Quantitative Imaging in Medicine and Surgery, Physics in Medicine and Biology, Radiology-AI, Scientific Reports, European Radiology, Radiation Protection Dosimetry, etc.

At UT Southwestern, Dr. Duan is an active member of the Institutional Review Board (IRB) and the Subcommittee for the Human Use of Radiation (SHUR). He also serves on the Radiology CT Operations Committee and the UTSW Radiation Protocol Committee for CT. 

An innovating educator 

As a dedicated educator, Dr. Duan gives high-quality medical physics lectures to radiology residents, fellows, graduate students and radiologists, and receives high evaluation scores. Although physics is a challenging topic for physicians, one resident commented in the evaluation, “Dr. Duan gave a really excellent lecture. He understood how to make slides, particularly the slides with less words, more images, and videos to illustrate his points. This kept us engaged more throughout the lecture. His speaking style was also excellent with great projection and pacing.” Dr. Duan is also an innovator of radiology resident education. He is one of the first adopters in UT Southwestern of web-based learning tools for graduate medical education. He led the online-education program for radiology residents, opening the door to a new format for medical physics education in radiology.