Published: February 14, 2025

Stories from the Road: Building Human Capacity in Vietnam with REI

REI is transforming healthcare in Vietnam by building up doctors, fostering education, and creating lasting change. Learn how you can get involved.


Harold S. Pine, MD, on behalf of the Humanitarian Efforts Committee


Resource Exchange International (REI) is a not-for-profit organization that aims to “build people to build nations.” Through the expertise of permanent staff and short-term teams, REI plays a unique role in building human capacity among professionals in low- and middle-income countries—individuals who are positioned to bring real and lasting transformation to their communities and countries through transformational leadership.

Since its incorporation as a U.S. non-profit in 1990, REI has sent skilled and credentialed professionals, and a staff of leaders, to organize field-driven programs to countries around the world. Currently, REI programs are focused in Djibouti, Egypt, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Laos, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam. 

Rei Map

REI has programs in eight countries, pictured above.

In each of these countries, REI equips and empowers people to strengthen their nations and improve their quality of life.  The organization strives to help “eradicate material poverty, poverty of education, poverty of opportunity, poverty of health, and poverty of soul—the poverty of individuals, families, communities, and nations.” To achieve its mission, REI’s specific goals are to provide education and training, impart skills that improve the quality of life for families and communities, promote personal and cultural interchange, foster international goodwill and understanding, develop mutual respect and lasting friendships, and sustain local resources.

Location and Need

Vietname MapIn Vietnam, REI partners with hospitals, universities, and organizations to develop leaders in their fields. The organization equips professionals with a vision to pass on their knowledge and skills to create a multiplying impact.

REI’s in-country team and short-term professional teams provide training in the fields of agriculture, business, education, medicine, and social work. Since 1992, REI has sent more than 600 professionals on more than 1,400 trips to provide training, coaching, and mentoring.  Since then, Vietnam has seen remarkable growth and change with a rapidly expanding population and improving quality of life. With a well-established healthcare program, teaching facilities in otolaryngology have been built primarily in the two largest cities: Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.

REI-Vietnam has partnered with four of these facilities, seeing the educational efforts expand out from these locations with local physicians venturing out to provide education and care in more remote locations and touching all corners of the country.

Personal Experiences

I watched the end of the Vietnam War on TV. My father was a battalion surgeon attached to the Marine Corps from 1970 to 1971. Growing up, I read all the books I could find about the conflict there. I watched all the movies, too. Around 30 years later, I finally had the chance to visit Vietnam myself.

In 1994, REI arranged for Jack Van Doren Hough, MD, to visit Vietnam as the country started to open up to professionals from the U.S. In 1995, three Vietnamese surgeons attended the AAO-HNSF Annual Meeting. The next year, the first team visited teaching hospitals in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. ByronRon” J. Bailey, MD, one of my personal heroes and mentors, was on that trip. After his second trip, he published an editorial calling on the need for many countries to modernize their graduate medical education and improve their patient care. In that editorial, he also spoke about the role that volunteer teachers could play in that process.

When I was a senior resident in the year 2000, I got the chance to join Dr. Bailey and Brent A. Senior, MD, for my first trip. Little did I know how much that first adventure would shape my professional identity.

It’s one thing to have grand aspirations for international volunteer work, but without infrastructure, it becomes difficult—if not dangerous. REI provides that support by sending long-term staff as well as short-term professional teams to the various countries in which they work.

Recently, I got back from my 20th trip to Vietnam. I have witnessed amazing advancements in otolaryngology care over the intervening years. I had the opportunity to watch surgeons doing their first Bovie tonsillectomy, and then, a few years later, a coblation tonsillectomy. I have witnessed the explosion of sinus surgery care, where local surgeons are now trained to take on the most complicated cases. I watched the first grand rounds given in English by a nervous senior resident.

Our teams have helped to model how attendings and residents can work together in the operating room. It has been a blessing to see many of my own residents join me on various trips. Last year, Vietnam hosted the ASEAN conference, and the pride within the Vietnamese otolaryngology community was palpable.

I return to Vietnam every year for many reasons. I love adventure. I love spicy food. I love the cheap health spas. But most of all, because the REI motto—"building people to build nations"—resonates with me. Through these visits, I have made lifelong friendships.

Pham Tuan Canh, MD, was a young attending I met on my first trip. I remember thinking how kind he was as we worked together on a laryngectomy. He has remained involved with REI for 25 years, and it was deeply rewarding to see him give the opening remarks as the director of the National ENT Hospital in Hanoi at its 55th-anniversary celebration.

Dr. Pine and Dr. Lam celebrating the 55th anniversary of the National ENT Hospital.Dr. Pine and Dr. Lam celebrating the 55th anniversary of the National ENT Hospital.Nguyen Tran Lam, MD, was a senior resident when we met. I watched him put in his first ear tube. Now, he is vice director of the Office of Development and works in the Endoscopy Department in Hanoi. He has become a dear friend, and on my most recent trip, I had the chance to visit his apartment and play with his kids.

Finally, there’s Lam Huyen Tran, MD, who was a resident at Cho Ray Hospital when she first met Dr. Bailey. In 2013, she was selected for a prestigious mini-fellowship and visited the U.S., staying with us at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) and with Richard Kopke, MD, at the Huff Ear Institute. She is now a valued senior member of the team at NTP Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City.

The author, Dr. Pine, and the young physicians and students stop to pose for a quick selfie during his latest trip to Vietnam.The author, Dr. Pine, and the young physicians and students stop to pose for a quick selfie during his latest trip to Vietnam.Building up individual people and their capacity works. It has the power to bring lasting transformational change to an entire system and country. Of all the exciting experiences I’ve had over the last 25 years, perhaps my greatest joy has been working with the Vietnamese otolaryngology residents. It is these energetic young surgeons who brought otolaryngology care into the 21st century and who will continue to push the envelope on what is possible. I can’t think of a more culturally stimulating, professionally rewarding, or personally satisfying few weeks anywhere in the world.

Being involved with medical mission work with REI has given me a yearly reminder of my “why”—to take great care of children. Here, I feel real joy, temporarily unburdened from the craziness of practicing medicine back home. Being an otolaryngologist-head and neck surgeon can and should be fun. If you have always dreamed of doing a medical volunteer trip, consider joining me next year. What a treat to be here to celebrate the 55th anniversary of the National ENT Hospital. For now, it’s time to soak in the barrels.

Watch REI Vietnam program coordinator Brent A. Senior, MD and participant Scott Hardison, MD, on a recent trip to Hanoi. Video reproduced with permission from REI.


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