March 11, 2026
Expanding Success: Vietnam National Children’s Hospital Named Children’s HeartLink Center of Excellence
Vietnam National Children’s Hospital is now a Children’s HeartLink Center of Excellence!
In nine years, the dedicated heart care team at Vietnam National Children’s Hospital has improved their program to consistently deliver high-quality, complex care to children— including newborns and infants—with congenital heart disease (CHD).
Located in Hanoi, Vietnam’s capital and second largest city, it’s the biggest pediatric cardiac program in the country and widely regarded as the premier hospital for children. It serves 45 million people in the northern region of the country.
Vietnam National Children’s Hospital (VNCH) is now the second Children’s HeartLink Center of Excellence in Vietnam. And the first of six additional Centers of Excellence to achieve our goal of twelve by 2030. Each hospital serves as a hub, transforming care for their region through training, access expansion and advocacy.
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A Transformative Milestone
In a bustling country of 98 million people, there are only fifteen pediatric cardiac surgery centers in Vietnam, far less than needed. Many children do not receive treatment for congenital heart disease, especially newborns and infants in need of critical surgery.
The gap: 10 centers and 40 surgeons with Newborn and Infant surgery capacity is needed to address the demand for CHD care in Vietnam.
The need in Vietnam:
babies are born with CHD each year
will have access to treatment annually
cardiac surgeons who can treat children with CHD
cardiac centers with some capacity for newborn surgery
Becoming a Children’s HeartLink Center of Excellence means Vietnam National Children’s Hospital has demonstrated superior clinical outcomes, organizational effectiveness and is delivering complex care for children who need it. More children in northern Vietnam now have access to quality, lifesaving care that wasn’t available ten years ago.
Learn more about this through the story of a young heart warrior named Ngan.
They can also lead and train others in their region, thus expanding access to pediatric heart care in their local region and beyond. See the many ways Vietnam National Children’s Hospital has improved their clinical, organizational and training capacity in concrete numbers:
Improvements in Care & Training
Each year, the hospital cares for more than 30,000 children and performs 1,700 heart surgeries, including 1,100 open heart surgeries.- Demonstrated progress across quality indicators: more workforce and increased capabilities; caring for a similar volume of patients, but cases have grown in complexity; lowered infection and mortality rates across all cases regardless of complexity.
- It’s a hub for a network of 14 provincial centers and currently helping three of these centers build pediatric cardiac surgical capacity.
- As a regional trainer, VNCH regularly trains clinicians from other parts of the country as well as international fellows.VNCH has also provided capacity-building support in Vietnam and internationally, such as Bangladesh, to assist with complex cases.
- Participates in national advocacy to address congenital heart care needs in Vietnam and to close the gap through system transformation, including improved educational pathways and workforce development.
How Long–term Support Fast Tracks Success
The journey to become a Children’s HeartLink Center of Excellence is long and requires generous support from medical volunteers, as well as individuals, organizations, companies and foundations who believe in our cause.
Vietnam National Children’s Hospital’s success was made possible with continued support from the Ping and Amy Chao Foundation and Transparent Fish Fund and generous engagement and support provided by medical volunteers from the University of California, San Francisco. Since 2017, their gifts made the following possible:
The Ripple Effects of Long-term Support
Vietnam National Children’s Hospital’s ability to develop and implement trainings for a local, national and international pediatric cardiac community is a key component to creating sustainable access to heart care for children in critical need.
The training Vietnam National Children’s Hospital received through the process of becoming a Children’s HeartLink Center of Excellence now forms the foundation of their ability to train others. For example, in 2025, Vietnam National Children’s Hospital in partnership with Children’s HeartLink medical volunteers, began a two-year pediatric cardiology training program of weekly lectures and case discussions for cardiologists, surgeons, anesthesiologists and intensivists. This program is the first of its kind in the country.
The impact of these trainings extends beyond individual patients and procedures. Over time, partner hospitals’ pediatric heart care programs influence how care is delivered across the hospital, how clinicians are trained and retained, and how care develops at regional and national levels. Ultimately, a ripple or multiplying 
effect is created: Locally grown cardiac teams are built to address the pediatric heart health needs in the country. This skilled workforce with growing clinical capacity ultimately means fewer deaths as children and their families await treatment.
This kind of long-term collaboration is what’s needed for a partner hospital to become a Children’s HeartLink Center of Excellence and to create sustainable access to heart care for children in need.
This is all made possible because of our supporters’ and medical volunteers’ belief in our program model and mission—thank you!
A Partnered Pathway to Excellence
“At the end of 2017, during the end of the team’s first visit to [VNCH], a newborn baby came in with critical Leopard’s Syndrome. With that disease we tried to do surgery before, but the mortality rate was around 50%. Luckily, we had the whole medical volunteer team stay one more day with us. They taught us how to do the correct surgery. How to do cryosurgery to help the newborn survive. And nowadays we can reduce the mortality rate up to 15% [for this disease].”
Dr. Truong, Director of Heart Center at Vietnam National Children’s Hospital
This kind of learning over many years is one of the key components on a partner hospital’s journey to becoming a Children’s HeartLink Center of Excellence. Vietnam National Children’s Hospital started their journey in 2017 when medical volunteers from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), led by Dr. Shunji Sano held their first training visit to VNCH. Early training visits focused on improving echocardiography and surgical skills and addressing existing issues such as high infection rates.
These twice-a-year training visits soon came to a halt as the COVID-19 Pandemic began. The partnership pivoted to weekly virtual case meetings, which remain ongoing after the pandemic.
Under the leadership of UCSF’s ICU Nurse Helen Busch, nurses at Vietnam National Children’s Hospital also hold monthly virtual discussions and trainings creating opportunities for mentorship with UCSF nurses to further expand their skills, knowledge and systems to support nurse learning and use of best practices to deliver high-quality patient care. These also remain ongoing.
The People at the Heart
Vietnam National Children’s Hospital’s growth and successes aren’t possible without those who’ve committed their lives to pediatric cardiac care. Meet a few of the people who’ve played a pivotal role in this partnership:
