By: Aghane Antunes
Dr. Khoa Nguyen, Pharm.D., clinical associate professor in the Department of Pharmacotherapy and Translational Research at the UF College of Pharmacy, traveled to Vietnam this summer with support from the UF International Center’s Global Fellows Program. His visit marked the start of promising collaborations in health informatics and artificial intelligence (AI) applications using electronic health record data, with the ultimate goal of improving cancer care and patient outcomes in underserved regions.
Dr. Nguyen’s research focuses on integrating AI and human-computer interaction into clinical practice, particularly in ways that enhance patient safety. His current projects include incorporating machine-learning models into UF’s electronic health record (EHR) system to predict opioid risk, as well as developing AI-supported pharmacogenomic clinical decision tools (PGx-CDS) to prevent severe adverse drug reactions.
In Vietnam, Dr. Nguyen visited Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy, one of the country’s leading medical universities, and Hue Center Hospital, where he presented collaboration opportunities, toured facilities, and assessed existing infrastructure to identify high-impact research areas in AI and health data applications. His schedule also included participation in the Hue Cancer Conference, where he presented potential research topics and engaged with international colleagues on future collaborations.
“The Global Fellows Program made it possible to establish these collaborations,” Dr. Nguyen said. “The seed funding and mentorship gave me the chance to connect directly with international colleagues and build relationships that will have a lasting impact on patient care. Together, we are developing Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) with both Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy and Hue Center Hospital, and we are working on data-sharing agreements to evaluate dataset formats and assess collaborative research potential.”
With support from his Global Fellows mentor, Dr. Ramzi Salloum, professor in the UF College of Medicine, Dr. Nguyen is laying the foundation for joint research and future funding proposals. His trip yielded several tangible outcomes: international partnerships, access to new datasets, and the initiation of MOUs and research proposals. Beyond these immediate results, Dr. Nguyen also gained critical insights into healthcare challenges in Vietnam and identified pathways where AI can meaningfully improve accessibility, quality, and safety of cancer care.
By building these collaborations, Dr. Nguyen is extending UF’s global reach while advancing his ultimate goal: harnessing technology and AI to improve health outcomes worldwide.
The Global Fellows Program, managed by UFIC’s Office for Global Research Engagement (OGRE), provides $5,000 seed grants to UF faculty to support international research trips, collaboration with scholars abroad, and access to global resources. Interested in the program?
Applications for the 2026 cohort are now open! https://internationalcenter.ufl.edu/globalfellows