Photo: Hallie Leo
UMass Chan Medical School student Linda Nguyen, who grew up in Natick, is ecstatic she’ll be moving closer to home after matching early into Massachusetts General Hospital’s urology residency program. Raised by parents who fled Vietnam, Nguyen was inspired to become a physician after witnessing her family’s challenges navigating health care.
Nguyen said her father, Andrew Nguyen, and paternal grandfather were part of the mass exodus of “boat people” who fled their country after the Vietnam War in the late ’70s and ’80s, facing great danger along their journey for better lives. Her mother, Christina Nguyen, was granted refugee status and flew to California, meeting her future husband just one week after arriving in the U.S. The pair decided to raise their children in Natick for better business opportunities in the nail and beauty industry.
“As a future urologist, I hope to be an advocate for my patients, ensuring they receive the care they deserve while addressing health care disparities,” said Nguyen, a student in the T.H. Chan School of Medicine. “Beyond clinical practice, I hope to mentor the next generation of trainees, just as my own mentors have supported me.”
Nguyen is a graduate of the Baccalaureate MD Pathway Program at UMass Chan Medical School, a program for UMass and Worcester State undergraduates that provides a path to medical school for first-generation college students and students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. The program introduced Nguyen to a female surgeon who is Asian, and for the first time in her life, she realized her dream of becoming a physician was attainable.
Nguyen discovered her passion for urology during her first and second year of medical school, during which she worked as a research assistant in the Department of Urology at MGH. She began researching whether a cystoscopy with biopsy was required to rule out malignancy in muscle invasive bladder cancer patients undergoing bladder sparing therapy, looking at MGH institutional data to better inform decision making. This became her capstone project at UMass Chan.
“Urology is an incredibly dynamic surgical specialty, yet many students don’t get exposure to it early in medical school,” said Nguyen, who has an undergraduate degree in microbiology from UMass Amherst. “There’s a common misconception that urology is solely focused on the male genitourinary system, but in reality, it’s a diverse field that treats patients of all genders and ages. The variety in urology is what excites me the most. On any given day, you might be reconstructing a bladder, treating cancer or helping a patient start a family.”
As co-leader of the Surgery Interest Group, Nguyen hosted a “Meet the Surgeons” panel; led a surgical simulation night with suturing, Da Vinci robotic and laparoscopy stations; and coordinated panels on navigating the residency process. Nguyen was also a co-leader of the Pre-Clinical Surgery Program, an optional enrichment elective for medical students.
“Most students are not exposed to urology until their third-year clerkships, so I was extremely lucky to have found this program during my first year,” Nguyen said. “I co-led the program the next year to help other students gain early surgical exposure.”
Graduating medical students who are taking part in the National Resident Matching Program will discover where they’ll begin their residency training at noon on Friday, March 21. UMass Chan’s event will be streamed on YouTube and on Facebook beginning at 11:15 a.m.
