[1] He attended Saint John's University in Shanghai, where he earned his master's degree and received his medical training, and went to the United States in 1949 for a residency in surgery.

He had planned to return to China, but chose to reside in the U.S. after Mao Zedong rose to power.

There, Dao participated in research studies of treating advanced cases of breast cancer by surgical removal of the adrenal gland and ovaries.

At the time, radical mastectomy was the standard method of treatment used for 90% of cases until the 1970s, involving a surgical procedure where the entire affected breast, axillary lymph nodes and underlying chest muscle (including the pectoral muscles) were removed as soon as a malignant tumor was found through a biopsy.

[2] He died at age 88 on July 16, 2009, at Hospice Buffalo in Cheektowaga, New York due to Pick's disease.