Dr Phua Kai Hong holds joint appointments at the School of Public Policy and the School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, where he teaches health policy, health care management and health economics in the various graduate programs in public policy, public health and business administration. He was also an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies, Singapore. He graduated with honours cum laude from Harvard University and received graduate degrees from the Harvard School of Public Health (Master's in Health Services Administration & Population Sciences) and the London School of Economics & Political Science (PhD in Social Policy and Administration specializing in Health Economics). He was the recipient of a Harvard College Scholarship, the Sigma Scholarship from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University, and a National University of Singapore Overseas Graduate Scholarship.

Dr Phua has produced over 100 publications and papers in the field of health care management and related areas including the history of health services, health and population ageing, health economics and financing. He has contributed many international publications on comparative health policy, especially organizational and financing systems, and health sector reforms in the Asia-Pacific region. He is active as Chairman, Executive Board of the Asia-Pacific Health Economics Network (APHEN), Asian Health Systems Reform Network (DRAGONET), International Editorial Board member of Research in Healthcare Financial Management, International Association of Management Journal, and has also served as Associate Editor of the Asia-Pacific Journal of Public Health.

Dr Phua received The Outstanding Young Person of Singapore award in 1992 for his contributions to health policy and community service. He is currently a Vice-Chairman of the Singapore Red Cross, serves on the Board of Management of the Home Nursing Foundation and was a founder Council Member and Chairman, Resource Committee of the Gerontological Society. He was Chairman of the Task Force on Social Services 2015, to develop a strategic plan for the National Council of Social Service. He was appointed on many national advisory committees, including the Government Parliamentary Committee Resource Panel on Health (1988-1996), National Advisory Council on the Family and Aged (1989-1994), Review Committee on National Health Policies (1991-1992), Health Advisory Council, (1989-1992) and the Health Financing Sub-committee of the Economic Policy Review Committee (1989). He also served as Resource Person to the Workgroup on Health Care and Chairman of the Sub-workgroup on Resource Funding, in the Inter-Ministerial Committee on the Ageing Population (1999), Medical Hub Committee of the Economic Development Board and National Science & Technology Board (2001), Chairman of the Workgroup to Promote Singapore's Professional Services in the IPS Forum on Economic Restructuring (2002), and Chairman, Consumers Association of Singapores Committee on Transparency in Hospital Billing (2003-04).

At the corporate level, he was a past director of Health Management International Holdings and the NTUC Healthcare Cooperative. He has also consulted extensively for major multinational companies, including Baxter Healthcare, Johnson & Johnson, Merck Sharp & Dohme, Pfizer, Health Industry Manufacturers Association (HIMA) and the International Federation for Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (IFPMA). He has undertaken healthcare consulting assignments for numerous organizations and ministries of health in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Mongolia, Korea and Japan. Internationally, he has served as Chairman, Technical Advisory Group on Health Sector Development of the World Health Organization Western Pacific Regional Office, and moderated the Ministerial Roundtable on Health and Poverty at the WHO Regional Meeting in 2000 and WHO Bi-Regional Meeting on Health Care Financing in 2005. He has consulted in health policy and management to many public, voluntary and international agencies within the Asia-Pacific region, including the Asia-Pacific Academic Consortium for Public Health, International Red Cross, Asian Development Bank, United Nations Economic Commission for the Asia-Pacific, World Bank and World Health Organization.