Associate Professor Truong Thanh Huong is an expert at the Vietnam National Heart Institute at Bach Mai Hospital. (Photo: vtc.vn)

After graduating from Hanoi Medical University with excellent results and further training in Paris, Truong Thanh Huong worked at the Vietnam National Heart Institute.

“Cardiac screening must be carried out to determine the best treatment. Many patients are diagnosed and treated without surgery,” said Huong.

Huong directs a project that involves screening, diagnosis, genetic testing, genetic counselling, and setting up a management model for familial hypercholesterolaemia.

The project’s results have been shared with medical facilities throughout Vietnam. Huong says nearly half a million people in Vietnam have the disease.

Familial hypercholesterolaemia is a hereditary disease that affects generations of a family and causes dangerous complications such as heart attacks and strokes in young people. Huong’s research has resulted in better treatment methods at a lower cost.

“We see many children with familial hypercholesterolaemia with dangerous complications. The study by Huong has helped  doctors detect the disease and quickly intervene and screen family members to head off complications with early treatment,” said Associate Professor Pham Manh Hung, President of the Vietnam National Heart Institute.

Truong Thanh Hương has trained more than 40 Ph.Ds, MBAs, and resident doctors, and transferred advanced technologies to hundreds of doctors and medical staff at medical facilities across Vietnam.

“I am planning to replicate my project of screening, diagnosis, genetic testing, and genetic counselling in other provinces to allow early treatment to prevent complications. We now have 3 experts training 300 doctors in this methodology,” she said.

Huong received Vietnam’s 2020 Kovalevskaya Award, which honors female scientists who have devoted their life to helping society.