Research Fellow
Dr Duong Tran
PhD (Epidemiology), Master of International Public Health, Bachelor of Medicine, Graduate Certificate in University Learning and Teaching
Medicine & Health
National Drug & Alcohol Research Centre
Duong (a.k.a. Danielle) Tran is a medically trained epidemiologist with more than 15 years’ research experience in the utilisation of medicines, health services and health outcomes, leveraging ‘big data’ in real-world settings.
She is a Research Fellow at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW. With expertise in using population-based routine data collections, Danielle leads multi-national studies investigating the use and safety of prescription medicines for smoking cessation, mental health, and substance use dependence in pregnant population. Her research in maternal smoking and pharmaco-therapies for smoking cessation has been cited in the “Tobacco in Australia: Facts and Issues” editions - national tobacco control resources for clinicians, public health and policy makers. Danielle's led a study evaluating impact of the Health Care Home primary care model on quality of care and patient outcomes, as part of the national evaluation of primary care initiatives for people living in the community with chronic health conditions. Findings from the evaluation directly inform the reform of primary care as outlined in the Australia's Primary Health Care 10 Year Plan 2022-2032. Besides, she plays a key role in the development of the 'Join Us' research participant register - the first national research resource to timely engage many Australian adults in health and medical research, improving research productivity and efficiency.
Phone
02 9385 0694
E-mail
- Publications
- Media
- Grants
- Awards
- Research Activities
- Engagement
- Teaching and Supervision
- NHMRC Ideas Grant 2021 “Are nicotine replacement therapy and varenicline safe and effective for women trying to quit smoking during pregnancy?” (Chief Investigator C)
- NHMRC Ideas Grant 2021 "Hospital trajectories for 15 million Australians" (Associate Investigator)
- NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Medicines and Ageing, 2018 “Leveraging Australian linked data on medicines exposures in pregnancy for multinational comparisons: Use of antipsychotics in pregnancy” (Chief Investigator D)
- Australian Government Department of Health 2017 “Health Care Home model evaluation project” (Chief Investigator D)
- Australian Commission for Safety and Quality in Health Care 2017 “Rapid environmental scan and literature review on avoidable hospital readmission indicators” (Chief Investigator B)
- HealthDirect Australia 2014 “Mapping the outcomes of calls to healthdirect Australia” (Chief Investigator B)
- Western Sydney University Early Career Seeding Grant 2013 “Use of primary care and hospitalisation in older Australian culturally and linguistically diverse populations with type 2 diabetes” (Chief Investigator A)
- NHMRC Project Grant 2012 “Pharmacotherapy for smoking cessation during pregnancy and the inter-pregnancy period: a population-based cohort study” (Chief Investigator H)
- Western Sydney University 2011 “Enhancing evidence-based practice skills among nurses: Evaluation of teaching methods” (Chief Investigator B)
Mid-Career International Travel Award, 2016, Australasian Epidemiology Association
Australian Postgraduate Award, 2011-2013
Early Career Research Award, 2012, UK Medical Research Council Population Health Sciences Network
International Travel Award, 2012, Western Sydney University
Best Poster, 2011, Ingham Institute for Applied Medical Research
Cross Cultural Public Health Research Award, 2010, University of Sydney
AusAID scholarship, 2001-2002, Australian Agency for International Development
Danielle’s research motivation is to generate scientific evidence to inform clinical practice and health policy that leads to better quality of care and health outcomes, leveraging real-world data. Over the past 15 years, Danielle has developed extensive research methods in working with population-based routine data collections, such as Medicare claims for pharmaceutical dispensings and health professional attendances (PBS and MBS data), perinatal data collection, hospital admissions, emergency department presentations, medical records extracted from general practices, and registries (birth, death, cancer, and congenital anomalies).
Having high-level technical expertise in ‘big-data’, Danielle has been leading multi-national studies investigating the use and safety of prescription medicines for smoking cessation, mental health and substance use dependence in pregnant population. Her research in maternal smoking and smoking cessation pharmaco-therapies has been used in the “Tobacco in Australia: Facts and Issues” editions - national tobacco control resources for clinicians, public health and policy makers.
In addition, she’s led a study to evaluate patient accessing health services, quality of care, and health outcomes as part of the five-year national evaluation of Health Care Homes trial. The evaluation directly informs the reform of primary care as outlined in the Australia's Primary Health Care 10 Year Plan 2022-2032. Besides, Danielle has a key role in the development of the 'Join Us’ research participant register’ - the first national research resource to engage many Australian adults in health and medical research in timely manner. Since its launch in late 2021, the registry has provided support for more than 30 research studies in recruitment of study participants, improving research productivity and efficiency.
Danielle’s prior research included evaluations of patient compliance to Australian healthdirect telephone triage service, and development and implementation of hospital policies including inpatient assessments for drug and alcohol, fall prevention, clinical handover and error-reduction strategies.
I am a member of the Australasian Epidemiology Association, Health Services Research Association of Australia and New Zealand, International Society for Pharmacoepidemiology
My Teaching
As an academic, I have passion in education and building capacity for the next generation of scientists. My teaching interests combine epidemiology research methods and big data in health. I have been supervising students to complete PhD and Masters Degrees and Independent Learning Project (ILP) studies. I am available to supervise HDR candidates, and students undertaking Masters by Research, Dissertation, Honours and ILP projects.
I have taught in the following courses:
- HDAT9400 - Data Management and Curation (2018-present, various roles, including course convenor, course co-convenor, Chapter instructor)
- HDAT9100 - Context of Health Data Science (2018-present, Chapter instructor)
- SWCH9011 - Reproductive and Perinatal Epidemiology and Statistics (2018-2019, course convenor)
- PHCM2001 - Epidemiology (2022, Guest lecturer)
- Managing Big Data in Health Research (2015-2016, tutor)
- Introductory Data Linkage Course, Sydney University (2017-2018, Guest lecturer)