This interview is one in a series of interviews with recipients of the 2026 ACGME International Awards. The awardees join an outstanding group of current and previous honorees whose work and contributions to graduate medical education (GME) around the world represent the best in the field. They will be honored at the 2026 ACGME Annual Educational Conference, taking place 19-21 February 2026, in San Diego, California, US.
2026 ACGME International Physician Educator Awardee Nguyen Thi Tuyet, MD, PhD is the internal medicine residency program director and designated institutional official at VinUniversity in Hanoi, Vietnam. ACGME-I spoke with Dr. Nguyen about her career and what receiving this award means to her.
ACGME-I: How did you become involved in medicine, and in academic medicine specifically?
Dr. Nguyen: My path into medicine began early, although not in a straightforward way. After finishing high school, I took a career-interest survey because, at that time, structured career advising was not available. The results suggested that medicine might suit my strengths, so I sat for the entrance examination and began medical school. It was not until my third year, during clerkships in several teaching hospitals, that I truly committed to the profession. Talking with patients, asking questions, identifying abnormalities, and trying to understand their stories through the lens of what I had learned in textbooks and from mentors raised curiosity in me. I found meaning in trying to connect clinical manifestations with pathophysiology and in observing how treatments influenced patients’ lives.
My involvement in academic medicine began during my PhD training. My advisor there had a profound influence on me—he modeled what it meant to care deeply for trainees, to cultivate/nurture critical thinking, and to create a safe learning environment where mistakes were not punished but used as opportunities for growth. Watching him mentor trainees with patience and integrity inspired me to pursue a career as a faculty member and ultimately shaped the educator I strive to be today.
ACGME-I: What does this award mean to you?
Dr. Nguyen: Receiving this ACGME-I Physician Educator Award is an extraordinary honor. It represents far more than personal achievement—it symbolizes the collective effort of VinUni, our partner hospitals, the Vingroup-UPenn Alliance, and our dedicated faculty members and trainees who have worked tirelessly to advance GME in Vietnam. For me, the award affirms that the values I strongly believe in—compassion, curiosity, feedback, coaching and mentoring, and commitment to excellence—are shared by a global community of medical educators. It also reinforces my commitment to continue contributing to the development of future physicians and to help strengthen Vietnam’s medical training systems. This award truly humbles me, as it recognizes the shared efforts of our team in bringing new training models into practice.
ACGME-I: As this award reflects the contributions you’ve made to GME in Vietnam, what would you consider to be the most important of your contributions?
Dr. Nguyen: My most meaningful contributions have centered on advancing competency-based, internationally benchmarked GME programs in Vietnam. At VinUni, and with the invaluable partnership of the University of Pennsylvania, I have had the privilege of working with a dedicated team to co-design and implement residency curricula aligned with the ACGME-I framework, established structured systems for assessment and supervision, and strengthened academic-clinical partnerships across the Vinmec Healthcare System and affiliated teaching hospitals.
Equally important, with continued mentorship from UPenn, I have devoted significant effort to faculty development and to cultivating a culture of reflective practice and constructive feedback—an environment in which both residents and educators are supported to grow. Mentoring residents remains one of the most fulfilling aspects of my work, particularly in helping them develop strong clinical reasoning, professional identity, and leadership skills.
If I were to highlight one contribution of greatest personal significance, it would be demonstrating that Vietnam can build high-quality GME programs grounded in global standards yet thoughtfully adapted to local realities. In doing so, we have helped reshape national expectations of what residency training can and should achieve and have inspired a new generation of clinician-educators committed to excellence.
ACGME-I: In your view, how has the overall strengthening of GME, especially through international accreditation, benefited Vietnam’s medical education and health care systems?
Dr. Nguyen: The strengthening of GME through international accreditation has had a transformative impact on Vietnam’s medical education landscape. ACGME-I standards have provided a clear, comprehensive framework for training that emphasizes patient safety, graded supervision, competency-based progression, and continuous quality improvement.
For Vietnam’s health care system, this has translated into more confident, better-prepared physicians who are trained not only to deliver clinical care but also to lead teams, engage in critical thinking, and uphold ethical professionalism. International accreditation has also elevated expectations for transparency, accountability, and educational quality, encouraging hospitals to invest in learning environments, patient safety, quality improvement, evidence-based practice, and faculty development. On a broader scale, the successful adoption of global standards has increased confidence—both domestically and internationally—in Vietnam’s ability to produce good physicians and to participate more fully in regional and global health care networks.
ACGME-I: Having played a key role in the evolution of GME in Vietnam, what would you like to see happen in Vietnam’s GME environment in the future?
Dr. Nguyen: Looking ahead, I hope to see Vietnam develop a national GME system that is coherent, competency-based, and aligned with international best practices, while remaining responsive to the country’s workforce needs. Several priorities stand out to me:
- Scaling competency-based education nationwide, with comprehensive assessment systems and constructive feedback for learners’ improvement.
- Strengthening faculty development to cultivate skilled clinician-educators and academic leaders.
- Expanding GME accreditation beyond pilot programs to provincial and regional hospitals, improving equity in training quality.
- Integrating quality improvement and patient-safety into every residency program.
- Deepening international collaborations, not only to benchmark quality but to foster research, innovation, and bidirectional learning.
Ultimately, my hope is that every trainee in Vietnam—regardless of where they train—has access to a supportive learning environment, high-quality supervision, and opportunities to develop into compassionate, competent, and globally oriented physicians.