First Medical Mission to Vietnam Proves a Success

Earlier this month, 14 disabled people in Danang and Hue cities in Vietnam received corrective orthopedic surgery, thanks to a medical mission that brought American surgeons and rehabilitation specialists from the Medstar Health partnership of Georgetown University Hospital and National Rehabilitation Hospital to work side-by-side with Vietnamese clinicians. The mission, carried out under the American Schools and Hospitals Abroad program (ASHA), a congressionally mandated USAID program, was the first round of technical assistance provided to doctors and clinical staff as part of a humanitarian project coordinated by Viet-Nam Assistance for the Handicapped.

American physicians Dr. Scott Sauer and Dr. Dung Tran; and physical therapist, Dr. Paul H. Wang—paid their own way to travel to Vietnam to participate in outreach project and work alongside their Vietnamese counterparts at the Hue Medical University to demonstrate the latest medical advances in orthopedic surgery. They also organized a training workshops on rehabilitation medicine at the Danang Binh Dan Hospital in Danang City for area physicians. More than 30 doctors participated.