Thi Kim Phuong Nguyen

I am a paediatric pulmonologist at Da Nang Hospital for Women and Children, Vietnam. It was an honour to receive the APSR/Peter Sly Paediatric Young Investigator Award – the prize for best paediatric paper at the APSR Congress 2019 in Hanoi, Vietnam. The prize should significantly contribute to my research resume.

The ARSR Congress 2019 was a great experience where I had a chance to present my work to an international and local audience. We met with leaders/colleagues in the respiratory field and enjoyed Hanoi a lot. The APSR Congress covered a variety of respiratory topics with a focus on updates and cutting edge diagnosis, treatment and prevention. One of the interesting talks was 'Asthma epidemics: thunderstorm, wildfires' by Dr Guy Marks. It emphasized how climate change could affect our health. Without good prediction and preparation, a medical heathcare system might be overwhelmed by an asthma epidemic. Dr Eric Bateman provided the rationale and evidence-based changes in GINA 2019 for asthma prevention, and Dr Peter Gibson gave an update on neutrophilic asthma. I truly enjoyed the talk 'Update on treatment of community acquired pneumonia' given by Dr Francesco Blasi. He concluded that broad spectrum antibiotics should be reserved for severe pneumonia or cases that not responsive to narrow spectrum antibiotics. I think this is a main key conclusion of pneumonia management currently, especially in Asian countries where antimicrobial resistance is rising significantly.

Oral presentation was also an interesting section. Presenters with different topics contributed to the success of the congress. Colleagues from Bangladesh and India brought studies on cystic fibrosis to Vietnam. We previously thought this kind of disease would not be common in Asian populations, but we might be wrong. I had an opportunity to introduce a proposed pragmatic algorithm, which hopefully reduces the unnecessary hospitalisation and antibiotic use among children hospitalised with pneumonia in Vietnam. Receiving feedback and interest from colleagues and the chairman should pave the way for validation the algorithm in different settings in Vietnam. The poster discussion was an important section to make the congress successful. I had a good discussions with a lady who is working on tuberculosis in India, and working on evaluating the contribution of blood culture to the diagnosis of tuberculosis in children. There is still a huge burden of tuberculosis morbidity and mortality in the Asia-Pacific region that requires more attention from pulmonologists.

An additional positive point for the APSR Congress this year was a big and well-equipped conference venue. There were a couple of local souvenir shops located inside the venue that were useful for buying gifts to take home. The food and weather in Hanoi were really enjoyable.

I hope to attend the APSR Congress 2020 in Kyoto next year and would love to see more variety of paediatric respiratory sections, where pediatricians can enjoy presentations focusing on children.

Phuong Nguyen

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Dr Anne Goh (left) and Dr Phuong Nguyen (right)

Dr Phuong Nguyen and her colleagues