The Center for Community Health Strategy (CHS) was formed by a group of medical doctors and social scientists working in the field of public health and economic development. Its main areas of research include health reform, health system development, and reproductive health and adolescent health. It has an established record in Vietnam in health policy and strategy development, health sector reform and healthcare financing.
Researchers
Dao Thanh Huyen (huyendao.chs@gmail.com)
Dao Thanh Huyen is director of CHS and has extensive research experience on health reform and health financing. She has consulted for the Government of Vietnam, the Ministry of Health (MOH), the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Population Council, DANIDA, UNDP, SIDA, and Pathfinder International. She has taken a lead in a research on user fees and has conducted a health sector review in Vietnam. Dr. Huyen has a BA in Economics from Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics, an MD from Ha Noi School of Medicine, and a Masters in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University.
Sarah Bales
Sarah Bales is an international consultant with extensive experience in the area of policy research and household sample surveys in Vietnam where she has worked since 1992. She has provided consulting services on the health sector and poverty reduction to the Vietnamese government through projects with the World Bank, ADB, UNDP, UNFPA and Sida. She was team leader for implementation of the Vietnam 2002 National Health Survey and has provided technical assistance to the General Statistics Office on the Vietnam Household Living Standards Surveys. Her current work as long-term advisor at the Health Policy Unit of the MOH is focused on an impact evaluation of the health care fund for the poor, provider payment reforms and costing. She has ABD (all-but-dissertation) status in her PhD studies in economics at the University of California at Berkeley.
Nguyen Thi Hong Ha
Nguyen Thi Hong Ha is a PhD student in health economics at University of California at Berkley, and is an expert on health care financing in Vietnam. Before returning to her graduate studies, Ms Nguyen was a programme officer in the Hanoi office of the Population Council, a consultant at Mediconsult in Vietnam, and a faculty member of the Hanoi School of Public Health. She has conducted a number of studies in reproductive health and health systems. Her most recent research has been on the demand for voluntary health insurance in Vietnam. She has an MSc in Population and International Health from Harvard University.
Selected publications
Evand, M., Gough, I., Harness, S., McKay, A., Dao, H., Do, Ngoc. How progressive is the Vietnam Social Security? Ha Noi, UNDP, 2007.
Huong, DB., Phuong, NK., Bales, S. et al., Rural health care in Vietnam and China: Conflict between market reforms and social need. International Journal of Health Services. 37(3):555-572, 2007.
Levy, David T, Sarah Bales, Nguyen T. Lam and Leonid Nikolayev. The role of public policies in reducing smoking and deaths caused by smoking in Vietnam: Results from the Vietnam tobacco policy simulation model. Social Science & Medicine, 62(7), 1819-1830, 2006.
Nguyen Thi Hong Ha, Peter Berman, and Ulla Larsen. Household utilization and expenditure on private and public health services in Vietnam. Health Policy and Planning, 17(1), 61–70, 2002.
Knowles, James C., Nguyen Thi Hong Ha, Dang Boi Huong, Nguyen Khang, Tran Thi Mai Oanh, Nguyen Khanh Phuong and Vu Ngoc Uyen. Making Health Care More Affordable for the Poor, Ministry of Health. Medical Publishing House, Hanoi 2005.