Mia Yang, MD

“I love older adults and their unique stories. Geriatric medicine gives me the training and experience of caring for patients in all settings of care: home-based primary care, office-based consultative care, inpatient medicine, nursing home and rehab. The daily extraordinary dedication of caregivers for persons living with dementia inspires me to make the health care system better for all with cognitive impairment and dementia.”

Dr. Mia Yang is board certified in internal medicine. Her clinical interest is in geriatric medicine, focusing on Alzheimer's Disease, dementia, polypharmacy and geriatric syndromes. In addition to her clinical practice, Dr. Yang is the Shelton Endowed Chair in Cognitive Health and an associate professor in the Departments of Implementation Science and Gerontology and Geriatrics at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

Growing up with her grandparents made her choose geriatric medicine as a specialty. Dr. Yang feels geriatricians are ideal health system leaders because of their deep understanding of the lived experiences of older adults and their families. She loves thinking systematically about how to optimize the care patients and families receive in partnership with community organizations, and she hopes to create a future where everyone can find the resources they need, no matter where they are on the memory and dementia journey.

Dr. Yang was the recipient of the inaugural Mary Fennell Lyles MD Award for Outstanding Clinical Care and the Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Hero Award. Her research interests are in implementation science and dementia pragmatic clinical trials.

She received her bachelor’s degree and her medical degree at the University of North Carolina. Dr. Yang completed residency in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center and a fellowship in geriatric medicine at Johns Hopkins Medicine.

She is married to an inpatient palliative care physician, and they have 2 children. The family loves to swim and socialize at their neighborhood pool and make French toast and bacon on weekends.