DrCrystal Lee

Crystal Lee is a Senior Research Fellow at Deakin Health Economics. She has extensive experience in conducting systematic reviews and large-scale epidemiological analyses to study chronic diseases. As part of the DETECT-2 study, her work on glycaemic threshold, HbA1c, was translated by the World Health Organization into an international guideline, consequently, the HbA1c diagnostic test for diabetes became a Medicare item in 2014. Until recently, Crystal’s papers on the cost of diabetes, obesity and chronic kidney disease were the main source of national costing data reported for these chronic conditions.

Since 2018, Crystal has been involved in research that aims to improve patient care through the study of health administrative records in Australia. In a Heart Foundation funded project, she reported disparities in the management of coronary heart disease in primary care using data from a large national general practice database (MedicineInsight). This led to an NHMRC Ideas Grant awarded in 2022 with colleagues at both Deakin University and La Trobe University. The project aims to study sex differences in the journey of individuals with coronary heart disease through the healthcare system using general practice records linked to health administrative records from multiple jurisdictions in Australia. In 2020, she received a Diabetes Australia grant to study medication adherence using the 45 and Up Study data with linkage to health administrative records. Prior to joining Deakin, she was involved in four Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre funded projects that studied various aspects of the healthcare system with partners in academia and from the Western Australian health sector.