Federal Way native to spread global health awareness on cross-country trip

Published 5:33 pm Monday, January 4, 2016

A 2006 Thomas Jefferson High School graduate and now fourth-year medical student at the Ohio State University has the opportunity this spring to bicycle 3,300 miles across the United States, educating small, underserved communities about the disparity of resources affecting access to basic healthcare.

Victor Nguyen, 27, specializing in general surgery at the university’s College of Osteopathic Medicine, will join the Ohio State University’s student-led nonprofit Ride for World Health where they will start in San Diego, California on March 21 and end in Bethany Beach, Delaware on May 15.

Major cities the group of bicyclists — many of them fourth year medical students at the university — will visit comprise San Diego, Phoenix, Albuquerque, Oklahoma City, Louisville, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Washington, D.C. and Bethany Beach. But Nguyen said there will be many small communities in between, many with populations under 5,000 people.

“These are extremely small towns,” Nguyen said. “These are some of the most underserved. We call ahead to communities to ask what health concerns they have to customize our visit to their community.”

In many of the communities that are visited, Ride for World Health presents a lecture series that hits on topics that include infectious diseases, mental health and poverty and health. These lectures bring to the forefront Ride for World Health’s goal to not only educate about domestic healthcare, but also global health.

This year, as part of the trip, Ride for Global Health wishes to fundraise for two global health organizations: the Ohio State University-Greif Neonatal Survival Program and Esperanca. The OSU-Greif Neonatal Survival Program, founded in 2012, has a goal to improve the lives of mothers and infants in third-world countries through continuing education and training programs that raise the rate of in-country healthcare workers. Esperanca focuses on improving health in the world’s poorest countries.

When Nguyen was an undergrad at the University of Washington, he was granted the opportunity to visit Vietnam — his mother and father’s home country — where he and a team of doctors set up mobile health clinics in rural communities.

“Before Vietnam, I never considered global health because I thought, ‘Why don’t I help people here (in the U.S.) first?’” Nguyen said. “It was a game-changer for me to travel to Vietnam. To be in rural communities is a reminder that there is still a lot we can do in healthcare.”

Nguyen applied what he learned in Vietnam during his second year in medical school when he traveled to Honduras with the Ohio State University organization Partnership for Ongoing Developmental Educational and Medical Outreach Solutions.

To many people living in rural communities of Honduras, Nguyen said the organization provided primary care and taught good nutrition.

“We brought orthopedic surgeons who looked at people’s joints,” Nguyen added. “We were focusing on teaching public health and health awareness. We connected them to local healthcare.”

Now as a fourth-year medical student, Nguyen thinks he is better equipped with more medical knowledge to really make a difference in the communities Ride for World Health will visit.

“I want to visit with these communities and connect with them and learn different lifestyles and how they go about their day,” Nguyen said. “I want to help them connect with local resources and teach them what do when things go wrong.”

Nguyen will graduate in May. After graduation he will begin his five-year surgery residency. He hopes to continue his contributions to global health awareness following graduation and when he starts his career.

To learn more, visit r4wh.org and to donate to Ride for World Health’s 2016 charity beneficiaries, visit r4wh.org/donate.