Suan studied political science and international relations in Australia and France, and obtained her graduate degrees in public health from the National University of Singapore. She is interested in health systems and policy research, with a focus on evidence synthesis, policy analysis, and quantitative methods. She is an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore, and a Senior Fellow at Galen Centre for Health and Social Policy, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.