I am planning on a multi-day advanced cleft course to be hosted in Hanoi, Vietnam for this September, 2026. The goal of this course is to be a catalyst to elevate the existing cleft care and existing current disparities in access as well as technical knowledge. We will have international faculty from the US, Canada, Australia, Brazil, South Korea, and Taiwan. Importantly we are integrating Vietnamese surgeons as experts to facilitate interchange.
The Vietnamese population of over 100 million people who host a 1/550 incidence of cleft lip and palate. The surgeons who are taking care of them will elevate their knowledge and technical expertise such that it is less reliant on outside medical groups performing medical mission.
The impact is to be a force multiplier by teaching surgeons. Many already perform cleft lip surgery, but there are many gaps in knowledge including more advanced aspects of cleft care such as orthognathic (jaw) surgery, cleft rhinoplasty, and taking care of complications. We hope that Vietnamese surgeons will be able to become the regional leaders who can then teach others with less experience and knowledge.
The inaugural Nuoy International Cleft Mastery Summit was a success beyond measure. The intent and goal of the conference was to bring together cleft practitioners throughout southeast Asia with an internationally renowned faculty and to be a catalyst for implementation of comprehensive cleft care from previous sporadic care. We had approximately 150 attendees and representation from 5 continents, and 22 countries. In addition to a comprehensive conference arranged from birth to adulthood for the cleft patient, we incorporated local Vietnamese expertise into the panels and highlighted the history of cleft care in Vietnam, by Vietnamese surgeons. We hope that this helps shift from a western based viewpoint towards locally led programs, and a future as a training hub for other countries to come to. A panel was had regarding the future of Vietnam in cleft care with representatives from the North, Central, and Southern regions. There was locally led initiatives to create a VN wide cleft society. Also, we had a very informative and robust discussion panel for 6 NGOs who have had historically long investment in VN, in order to identify shared goals and reduce parallel processes. I left inspired and optimistic by the camaraderie and mutual desire to do better for our patients.
