Working Together in Vietnam

By Dr. Daye Park

I had the privilege of being able to participate in an international urology surgical outreach trip through IVUmed for a week in April 2026 during my third year of residency. I have not had any international volunteer experience prior to this trip and was very curious going into my trip how this would look. Overall, I was very impressed by the longitudinal partnership that Dr. Joel Gelman (University of California, Irvine) has established with Dr. Hung Lenh Do (Binh Danh Hospital) through IVUmed. Dr. Gelman has been working with Dr. Do and Binh Dan Hospital for more than ten years with marked results.

There are no reconstructive urology fellowships in Vietnam, though urologists in Vietnam do perform urethroplasty. Dr. Do shared that before this partnership, he thought that urethroplasty just tends to fail – that is, until he met Dr. Gelman. Dr. Do visited University of California, Irvine for few months learning about the clinic evaluation, how to perform a good retrograde urethrogram, and observing how Dr. Gelman performs the procedure in the United States. Over the years, Dr. Do’s team has performed hundreds of successful urethroplasty for patients in Vietnam. They have become fairly independent at treating urethral stricture disease with high success rates and are working on starting a reconstructive urology fellowship that is associated with The Society of Genitourinary Reconstructive Surgeons. I thought this partnership really embodies the mission of IVUmed, “teach one, reach many”. Dr. Gelman has been able to teach Dr. Do, who has taught other urology faculty and residents at Binh Dan Hospital. Now, they are expanding to reach urologists in different regions of Vietnam and urologists in surrounding Southeast Asian countries who hope to bring this expertise to their own patients.

As a resident, the trip was a great experience to see different pathologies, get a focused experience in reconstructive urology, and learn about a different healthcare system. A big form of transportation in Vietnam is motorbikes, more than cars. It appears that there are higher rates of pelvic fractures due to this and thus, resulting in higher rates of membranous urethral injuries. This is not a pathology that I have seen in my residency training thus far. I was able to see four pelvic fracture-related urethroplasties and having that repetition, despite it being a short trip, was a tremendous educational experience. We also had time to see other urology procedures and tour around the hospital. I was impressed by the efficiency, resourcefulness, and skills of the urology physicians in Vietnam and think that there are definitely areas that we can learn from them as well.

I hope that this is an experience that all urology residents can partake in. I would like to thank so many individuals that made this experience come true: Dr. Gelman for leading the trip and his commitment to education; Dr. Do and other staff and residents at Bin Danh hospital who were exceptional; Dr. Seth Thomas (reconstructive urology fellow at UCI) and Dr. Ben Yu (fellow urology resident) who provided great company and walks around Vietnam; OHSU Urology Department for supporting resident participation and in particular, Susi Driscoll, our administrative coordinator at OHSU; and the WSAUA for their financial support for these resident trips.