Dr Kim-Huong Nguyen

Senior Lecturer

School of Public Health
Faculty of Medicine

Senior Evaluator

Centre for Health Services Research
Faculty of Medicine

Overview

Dr Kim-Huong Nguyen is a Senior Lecturer in Health Economics at the University of Queensland. Her research centres on the efficient and equitable allocation of resources to support brain health in disadvantaged populations. She applies economic methods and theories to evaluate interventions, programmes and public policies for neurodegenerative diseases, brain injuries, and mental disorders. As a Global Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health with the Global Brain Health Institute (Trinity College Dublin and University of California, San Francisco), she collaborates closely with multidisciplinary teams—including artists, medical professionals, engineers, industry partners, advocates, and health and social care consumers—to advance knowledge and transform practices for brain health.

Research Impacts

Key Achievements in the Past 5 Years (2019-2023):

  1. Completed the "Cost of Care" project that measured the productivity and efficiency of residential aged care facilities (nursing homes) in Australia, while adjusting for quality differences. This project proposes a method to generate a composite quality index to benchmark individual facilities based on their service quality. The research findings directly contributed to the Final Recommendations by the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety (February 2021), which led to the development of the Star Ratings system for residential aged care facilities in Australia. This project was a collaborative effort between CHSR and the School of Economics.

  2. Conducted the "Star Ratings" project, aimed at developing a quality signaling mechanism to assist senior Australians and their representatives in making informed choices about residential aged care services. The development of Star Ratings was a direct outcome of the Cost of Care project mentioned above. The Department of Health and Aged Care partnered with CHSR, the Aged Care Industry Information Technology Council (ACIITC), and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to design the Star Ratings and build a website where senior Australians and their families can access the Star Ratings system.

  3. Became an Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health through a one-year onsite training with the Global Brain Health Institute at Trinity College Dublin. During the training, she led multiple collaborative initiatives, including a joint publication about hope and brain health, and an implementation report for the "Creativity and Well-Being for Personal and Professional Growth" initiative (a project funded by Erasmus++).

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Queensland
  • Masters (Coursework), The University of Queensland

Publications

  • Nguyen, Kim-Huong, Comans, Tracy, Nguyen, Thi Thao, Simpson, Digby, Woods, Leanna, Wright, Chad, Green, Damian, McNeil, Keith and Sullivan, Clair (2024). Cashing in: cost-benefit analysis framework for digital hospitals. BMC Health Services Research, 24 (1) 694, 1-12. doi: 10.1186/s12913-024-11132-7

  • Lane, Heather, Saunders, Rosemary, Crookes, Kate, Ang, Seng G. M., Bulsara, Caroline, Bulsara, Max K., Ewens, Beverley, Gallagher, Olivia, Gullick, Karen, Haydon, Sue, Hughes, Jeff, Nguyen, Kim‐Huong, Seaman, Karla and Etherton‐Beer, Christopher (2024). Prevalence of frailty and pain in hospitalised cancer patients: implications for older adult care. Internal Medicine Journal, 54 (4), 671-674. doi: 10.1111/imj.16351

  • Xu, William, Smith, Nicolas, Ting, Rachel, Soh, Qian, Saeed, Umar, Farrell, Michael, Wright, Deborah, Li, Jiting, Waraich, Abdullah, Gaborit, Lorane, Jabur, Aiden, Kalyanasundaram, Kaviya, Ohis, Christina, Foong, Chui, Ong, , Siribaddana, Venesa, Raubenheimer, Kyle, Vu, Jennifer, Ferguson, Liam, Varghese, Chris, Pockney, Peter, Atherton, Kristy, Martin, Jennifer, Banerjee, Arnab, Dudi-Venkata, Nagendra, Lightfoot, Nicholas, Ludbrook, Isabella, Peters, Luke, Sara, Rachel ... Reinke, Caroline (2024). Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries. British Journal of Surgery, 111 (1) znad421. doi: 10.1093/bjs/znad421

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Grants

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Supervision

  • (2022) Doctor Philosophy

  • Doctor Philosophy

  • Doctor Philosophy

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Publications

Book

Journal Article

Conference Publication

Other Outputs

Grants (Administered at UQ)

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Current Supervision

Completed Supervision

  • (2022) Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • (2022) Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

    Other advisors: