Bio


Dr. Kim’s focus is on international medicine. She is the Director of Educational Programs at the Stanford Center for Asian Healthcare Research and Education (CARE), and Medical Director of the International Medical Service (IMS) Department of Stanford Health Care. She was appointed to Harvard’s Global Health and Service Advisory Council, a body of individuals, thought leaders and leading Harvard faculty charged with providing a broad, real-world perspective on programs, and identifying new opportunities for growth and enhancement. Dr.Kim is also Chairman of the Chi-Li Pao Foundation USA, as well as a trustee of the Chi-Li Pao Foundation in Hong Kong, organizations committed to supporting educational and healthcare programs for the benefit of mankind. She was the founding Medical Director of the International Travel Medicine Service and was Chief of the Department of Internal Medicine at Hong Kong Adventist Hospital. She was previously a faculty member at UCLA, as well as a honorary and adjunct faculty member at the University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Clinical Focus


  • Internal Medicine

Academic Appointments


Administrative Appointments


  • Director, Educational Programs, Center for Asian Health Research and Education (CARE) (2019 - Present)
  • Medical Director, International Medical Services, Stanford Hospital (2011 - Present)

Honors & Awards


  • Member, Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society (1983-present)

Boards, Advisory Committees, Professional Organizations


  • Advisor, ABC's for Global Health (2022 - Present)
  • Faculty Fellow, Center for Innovation in Global Health (CIGH) (2021 - Present)
  • Member, Global Health and Service Advisory Council, Harvard Medical School (2020 - Present)
  • Trustee, Chi-Li Pao Foundation, Hong Kong (2019 - Present)
  • Chairman, Chi-Li Pao Foundation, USA (2018 - Present)
  • Fellow, Hong Kong Academy of Medicine (1995 - Present)
  • Fellow, Hong Kong College of Physicians (1995 - Present)
  • Fellow, American College of Physicians (1992 - Present)
  • Diplomate, American Board of Internal Medicine (1986 - Present)

Professional Education


  • Chief Medical Resident, UCLA School of Medicine, Internal Medicine
  • Medical Resident, UCLA School of Medicine, Internal Medicine
  • Medical Intern, UCLA School of Medicine, Internal Medicine
  • Doctor of Medicine, UCLA School of Medicine
  • Bachelor of Science, Stanford University, Chemistry

Current Research and Scholarly Interests


Medical education
Health services delivery
Management of chronic disease
Patient and physician satisfaction

All Publications


  • COVID-19 pandemic impact on opioid overdose deaths among racial groups within the United States: an observational cross-sectional study. British journal of anaesthesia Chu, R., Sarnala, S., Doan, T., Cheng, T., Chen, A. W., Jamal, A., Kim, G., Huang, R., Srinivasan, M., Palaniappan, L., Gross, E. R. 2023

    View details for DOI 10.1016/j.bja.2023.10.024

    View details for PubMedID 37977954

  • Factors associated with HIV Testing within the National Health Interview Survey (2006-2018). Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities Jamal, A., Srinivasan, M., Kim, G., Nevins, A. B., Vohra, S. 2023

    Abstract

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that individuals aged 13-64 test for HIV at least once during their lifetime. However, screening has been disproportionate among racial/ethnic populations. Using the National Health Interview Survey data (2006-2018), we examined HIV screening prevalence within racial/ethnic groups in the United States (US), and factors associated with testing among 301,191 individuals. This consisted of 195,696 White, 42,409 Black, 47,705 Hispanic and 15,381 Asian individuals. Logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) to estimate the association between ever testing for HIV and demographic, socioeconomic and health-related factors. Approximately 36% of White, 61% of Black, 47% of Hispanic and 36% of Asian individuals reported ever testing for HIV. Hispanic (OR = 1.28, 95% CI [1.25-1.32]) and Black individuals (OR = 2.44, 95% CI [2.38-2.50]) had higher odds of HIV testing, whereas Asian individuals (OR = 0.74, 95% CI [0.71-0.77]) had lower odds of HIV testing compared to White individuals. Individuals who identified as males, married, between the ages of 18-26 years or greater than or equal to 50 years were less likely to ever test for HIV compared to their counterparts. Similarly, those with lower education, lower income, better self-reported health, no health professional visits or living in the midwestern US were less likely to ever test for HIV compared to their counterparts (OR range: 0.14-0.92). Understanding the factors associated with HIV testing opens opportunities to increase testing rates for all and reduce health disparities in HIV detection.

    View details for DOI 10.1007/s40615-023-01728-w

    View details for PubMedID 37526879

    View details for PubMedCentralID 6994319

  • A QUALITATIVE EVALUATION OF A UNIVERSAL HEPATITIS B SCREENING ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORD REMINDER TOOL AT AN ACADEMIC PRIMARY CARE NETWORK Sarnala, S., Chu, R. V., Doan, T. V., Jamal, A., Phadke, A., Hang Pham, So, R., Huang, R., Kim, G. S., Palaniappan, L., Kim, K., Srinivasan, M. SPRINGER. 2023: S329
  • FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH HIV TESTING AMONG ASIAN-AMERICANS: AN ANALYSIS OF THE NATIONAL HEALTH INTERVIEW SURVEY Jamal, A., Srinivasan, M., Nevins, A., Kim, G. S., Vohra, S. SPRINGER. 2023: S180
  • FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH HIV-TESTING IN THE US POPULATION OVERALL AND BY RACE/ETHNICITY: AN ANALYSIS OF THE 2006-2018 NATIONAL HEALTH INTERVIEW SURVEY Jamal, A., Srinivasan, M., Nevins, A., Kim, G. S., Vohra, S. SPRINGER. 2023: S180-S181
  • Why Are We Going Backward? Barriers to Disaggregated Racial Information in Federal Data Sets. American journal of public health Jamal, A., Srinivasan, M., Kim, G., Huang, R. J., Palaniappan, L. 2023: e1-e4

    View details for DOI 10.2105/AJPH.2023.307339

    View details for PubMedID 37319392

  • Toward precision sleep medicine: variations in sleep outcomes among disaggregated Asian Americans in the National Health Interview Survey (2006-2018). Journal of clinical sleep medicine : JCSM : official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine Wang, R. Z., Jamal, A., Wang, Z., Dan, S., Srinivasan, M., Kim, G., Long, J., Palaniappan, L., Singh, J., Eggert, L. E. 2023

    Abstract

    STUDY OBJECTIVES: Asian Americans (AAs) report higher rates of insufficient sleep than non-Hispanic Whites (NHWs). It is unclear how sleep outcomes differ among disaggregated Asian subgroups.METHODS: The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) (2006-2018) was used to analyze self-reported sleep duration and quality measures for AA subgroups (Chinese [n=11,056], Asian Indian [n=11,249], Filipino [n = 13,211], and other Asians [n = 21,767]). Outcomes included hours of sleep per day, the number of days reporting trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, waking up rested, and taking sleep medication in the past week. Subsetted multivariate logistic regression was used to assess factors impacting sleep outcomes by ethnicity.RESULTS: 29.2% of NHWs, 26.4% of Chinese, 24.5% of Asian Indians, and 38.4% of Filipinos reported insufficient sleep duration. Filipinos were less likely to report sufficient sleep duration (OR 0.58, [CI95% 0.53-0.63]) and more likely to report trouble falling asleep (1.19, [1.04-1.36]) than NHWs. Chinese and Asian Indians had less trouble staying asleep ((0.66, [0.57-0.76]), (0.50, [0.43-0.58])) and falling asleep ((0.77, [0.67-0.90]), (0.71, [0.61-0.81]) than NHWs, and Asian Indians were more likely to wake feeling well rested (1.71, [1.51-1.92]). All Asian subgroups were less likely to report using sleep medications than NHWs. Foreign-born status had a negative association with sufficient sleep duration in Filipinos, but a positive association in Asian Indians and Chinese.CONCLUSIONS: Filipinos report the highest burden of poor sleep outcomes and Asian Indians report significantly better sleep outcomes. These findings highlight the importance of disaggregating Asian ethnic subgroups to address their health needs.

    View details for DOI 10.5664/jcsm.10558

    View details for PubMedID 36883375

  • Disparities and Trends in Routine Adult Vaccination Rates Among Disaggregated Asian American Subgroups, National Health Interview Survey 2006-2018. AJPM focus Wang, Z., Jamal, A., Wang, R., Dan, S., Kappagoda, S., Kim, G., Palaniappan, L., Long, J., Singh, J., Srinivasan, M. 2023; 2 (1): 100044

    Abstract

    Vaccination rates may be improved through culturally tailored messages, but little is known about them among disaggregated Asian American subgroups. We assessed the vaccination rates for key vaccines among these subgroups.Using the National Health Interview Survey, we analyzed recent vaccination rates (2015-2018, n=188,250) and trends (2006-2018) among Asians (Chinese [n=3,165], Asian Indian [n=3,525], Filipino [n=3,656], other Asian [n=5,819]) and non-Hispanic White adults (n=172,085) for 6 vaccines (the human papillomavirus, hepatitis B, pneumococcal, influenza, tetanus-diphtheria [tetanus], and shingles vaccines). We controlled demographic, socioeconomic, and health-related variables in multivariable logistic regression and predicted marginal modeling analyses. We also computed vaccination rates among Asian American subgroups on the 2015-2018 National Health Interview Survey data stratified by foreign-born and U.S.-born status. We used Joinpoint regression to analyze trends in vaccination rates. All analyses were conducted in 2021 and 2022.Among Asians, shingles (29.2%; 95% CI=26.6, 32.0), tetanus (53.7%; 95% CI=51.8, 55.6), and pneumococcal (53.8%; 95% CI=50.1, 57.4) vaccination rates were lower than among non-Hispanic Whites. Influenza (47.9%; 95% CI=46.2, 49.6) and hepatitis B (40.5%; 95% CI=39.0, 42.7) vaccination rates were similar or higher than among non-Hispanic Whites (48.4%; 95% CI=47.9, 48.9 and 30.7%; 95% CI=30.1, 31.3, respectively). Among Asians, we found substantial variations in vaccination rates and trends. For example, Asian Indian women had lower human papillomavirus vaccination rates (12.9%; 95% CI=9.1, 18.0) than all other Asian subgroups (Chinese: 37.9%; 95% CI=31.1, 45.2; Filipinos: 38.7%; 95% CI=29.9, 48.3; other Asians: 30.4%; 95% CI=24.8, 36.7) and non-Hispanic Whites (36.1%; 95% CI=34.8, 37.5). Being male, having lower educational attainment and income, having no health insurance or covered by public health insurance only, and lower frequency of doctor visits were generally associated with lower vaccine uptakes. Foreign-born Asian aggregate had lower vaccination rates than U.S.-born Asian aggregate for all vaccines except for influenza. We also found subgroup-level differences in vaccination rates between foreign-born and U.S.-born Asians. We found that (1) foreign-born Chinese, Asian Indians, and other Asians had lower human papillomavirus and hepatitis B vaccination rates; (2) foreign-born Chinese and Filipinos had lower pneumococcal vaccination rates; (3) foreign-born Chinese and Asian Indians had lower influenza vaccination rates; and (4) all foreign-born Asian subgroups had lower tetanus vaccination rates.Vaccination rates and trends differed among Asian American subgroups. Culturally tailored messaging and interventions may improve vaccine uptakes.

    View details for DOI 10.1016/j.focus.2022.100044

    View details for PubMedID 37789943

    View details for PubMedCentralID PMC10546520

  • Vaccination patterns, disparities, and policy among Asian-Americans and Asians living in the USA. The Lancet. Global health Jamal, A., Wang, R., Wang, Z., Dan, S., Srinivasan, M., Kim, G., Palaniappan, L., Singh, J., Kappagoda, S. 2022; 10 Suppl 1: S27

    Abstract

    Although Asian-American individuals have higher rates of some vaccine-preventable diseases such as hepatitis B, vaccination rates among them are low compared with those of non-Hispanic White individuals. Most vaccine research looks at Asian-American people as a single category despite large within-group heterogeneity in health-seeking behaviours. Little is known about vaccination coverage among disaggregated Asian-American ethnic subgroups, although such information could inform policies focused on increasing vaccine uptake. Therefore, we aimed to assess vaccination coverage for several vaccines among disaggregated Asian-American subgroups.We examined National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data from 2015-18 to analyse the vaccination status of Chinese, Asian Indian, Filipino, other Asian, and non-Hispanic White adults (n=253 626) for seven vaccines recommended by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: human papillomavirus (HPV), hepatitis B (HBV), influenza, tetanus, tetanus-diphtheria-pertussis (Tdap), shingles, and the pneumococcal vaccine. We used NHIS data from 2006-18 (n=880 210) to analyse changes in vaccination rates for each ethnic group over time. We used logistic regression to estimate differences in vaccination rates while controlling for demographic, socioeconomic and health-related variables.Among the seven vaccines, HPV and shingles vaccines had the lowest uptake, whereas Tdap had the highest uptake among all groups. Compared with the non-Hispanic White group, Asian Indians were almost half as likely to receive the HPV vaccine (odds ratio 0·61, 95% CI 0·41-0·92), whereas Filipinos (1·51, 1·02-2·25) and other Asians (1·42, 1·02-1·97) were more likely to receive it. The Filipino (1·50, 1·21-1·88) and other Asian groups (1·42, 1·19-1·71) were more likely to receive the HBV vaccine than the non-Hispanic White group. For the influenza vaccine, the Asian Indian (1·28, 1·05-1·56), Filipino (1·44, 1·17-1·79) and other Asian (1·38, 1·16-1·65) groups were more likely to receive the vaccine than the non-Hispanic White group. For the pneumococcal vaccine, the Chinese (0·57, 0·34-0·94) and other Asian (0·66, 0·47-0·92) groups were less likely to receive the vaccine than the non-Hispanic White group.Among US adults, we found significant disparities in vaccine uptake among different Asian and Asian-American ethnic groups. US policy makers trying to improve vaccine uptake among Asian and Asian-American people could learn from successful international immunisation programmes to develop culturally appropriate interventions to improve vaccine uptake in Asian and Asian-American individuals.None.

    View details for DOI 10.1016/S2214-109X(22)00156-5

    View details for PubMedID 35362432

  • Vaccination patterns, disparities, and policy among Asian-Americans and Asians living in the USA Jamal, A., Wang, R., Wang, Z., Dan, S., Srinivasan, M., Kim, G., Palaniappan, L., Singh, J., Kappagoda, S. ELSEVIER SCI LTD. 2022: 27
  • Precision Public Health Matters: An International Assessment of Communication, Preparedness, and Coordination for Successful COVID-19 Responses. American journal of public health Sales, C., Kim, Y., Kim, G., Lin, B., Palaniappan, L. 2021; 111 (3): 392–94

    View details for DOI 10.2105/AJPH.2020.306129

    View details for PubMedID 33566659

  • Shifting our stance for current COVID-19 outbreaks: A global response to an international pandemic JOURNAL OF GLOBAL HEALTH Obra, J., Lin, B., Palaniappan, L., Kim, G. S. 2021; 11
  • Scuba Diving The Hong Kong Medical Diary Pei, G. K. 2009; 14 (9)
  • Western impressions of the Hong Kong health care system WESTERN JOURNAL OF MEDICINE Bennett, C. L., Pei, G. K., Ultmann, J. E. 1996; 165 (1-2): 37–42

    Abstract

    Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia are initiating health care reform to meet the changing demands of populations with improved socioeconomic status and access to modern technologies and who are living longer than in previous generations. Hong Kong, in particular, is facing a unique set of circumstances as its people prepare for the transition in 1997 from a British colony to a Special Administrative Region of China. While spending only 4% of its gross domestic product on health care, it has a large and regulated public hospital system for most inpatient medical care and a separate, loosely regulated private health care system for most outpatient medical care. In 1993 the Secretary for Health and Welfare of Hong Kong initiated a year-long process to debate the pros and cons of 5 fundamental programs for health care reform. After a year of open consultation, options were chosen. We describe the Hong Kong health care system, the fundamental changes that have been adopted, and lessons for reformers in the United States.

    View details for Web of Science ID A1996VG80200005

    View details for PubMedID 8855683

    View details for PubMedCentralID PMC1307539

  • Doctor-shopping in Hong Kong: implications for quality of care. International journal for quality in health care : journal of the International Society for Quality in Health Care Lo, A. Y., Hedley, A. J., Pei, G. K., Ong, S. G., Ho, L. M., Fielding, R., Cheng, K. K., Daniel, L. 1994; 6 (4): 371-81

    Abstract

    Doctor-shopping is defined as the changing of doctors without professional referral in the same illness episode. Two surveys on samples of patients attending Government Out-Patient Departments (GOPDs) in Hong Kong in 1989 (n = 869) and 1990 (n = 901) estimated the prevalence of shopping at nearly 40%, the main reason being a persistence of symptoms. Doctor-shoppers were likely to be younger with higher expectations of health care and who expressed dissatisfaction about aspects of the present service. In Hong Kong, patients perceive western medicine to be more effective and have high expectations of the effects of western drugs, in particular, in their administration by injection. Patients should be warned about iatrogenic health risks incurred from doctor-shopping; health education programmes are needed to modify unrealistic views about quality care. Health care providers in a mixed care system should promote greater continuity of care between doctors and both the public and private sectors, and identify and resolve problems which may be responsible for discontinuity of care.

    View details for DOI 10.1093/intqhc/6.4.371

    View details for PubMedID 7719673

  • The Future Role Of Specially-Trained Nurses In The Delivery Of Primary Health Care In Hong Kong Hong Kong Practitioner Pei, G. K., Hedley, A. J. 1994; 14 (1): 1-10
  • The health and health care choices of women in Hong Kong Hong Kong Practitioner Pei, G. K., Cheng, K. K., Hedley, A. J. 1991; 13 (10): 1714-1728
  • Preventive health measures and counseling in the government outpatient department clinics Hong Kong Practitioner Pei, G. K., Hedley, A. J., Cheng, K. K., Lo, A., Fielding, R. 1991; 13 (12): 1838-1853