James X. Zhang is an American health economist and health services researcher at the University of Chicago, who is known for his innovative attributes in exploring complex data.
Zhang initially worked with Nicholas Christakis, and the products included a novel methodology for identifying married couples in the Medicare claims to study mortality, morbidity, and health care use among the married elderly, and a novel claims-based dataset exploiting substantial cross-set linkages to study end-of-life care.
Zhang's research addressed the significance of comorbidity in clinical setting, and was among the most frequently cited papers in the field. His contribution also included that to some other influential study in the field of Medicare Part D program, and generic drug use. His most recent contribution with David O. Meltzer includes a novel method identifying patient with cost-related medication non-adherence using a big-data approach.