A cohort of emerging global health research scholars are advancing HIV prevention, substance use, mental health, and implementation science. Presented at the 4th Annual Global Health Scholars Symposium on Feb. 13, their projects shed new light on how Vietnam’s health system is addressing intertwined epidemics—HIV, methamphetamine use, depression, alcohol‑related harm—and how digital platforms and behavioral interventions are reshaping prevention and care. The scholars shared a common mission, to understand the lived experiences of key populations and to build practical, scalable solutions that can strengthen service delivery.
The event was sponsored by the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases and the Gillings School of Global Public Health. Vivian Go, PhD, Vietnam Country Director opened the program and introduced Myron Cohen, MD, director of the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Disease. Read more here.
Core Themes
Mental health, substance use, and stigma featured prominently, with Thuy Dao examining the long‑term relationship between methamphetamine use and depressive symptoms among people receiving methadone, Trang Nguyen identifying the unmet mental health needs of women who use methamphetamine, and Ngan Nguyen documenting provider perspectives on addressing unhealthy alcohol use among people with HIV.
In implementation science, Hue Nguyen explored how contingency management strategies can be adapted to methadone programs in resource‑constrained settings—illustrating how behavioral economic approaches may enhance treatment engagement.
Under health equity and social determinants, Thi Huong Dang’s innovative work mapped how online platforms shape or hinder chemsex behaviors among key populations, raising new questions about digital risk environments and prevention strategies.
Spotlight: A Blueprint for Better Counseling in Vietnam
In her oral presentation, Linh Pham, MPH, introduced a fidelity assessment tool designed to strengthen psychosocial counseling for people living with HIV who inject drugs. Pham’s talk addressed a central challenge in global health scale‑up: ensuring evidence-based interventions retain their effectiveness once transferred from controlled research settings into busy, diverse clinics.
Her work builds directly on the success of the KC 074 trial, which demonstrated that the SNaP intervention—combining systems navigation with structured psychosocial counseling—significantly improved ART uptake, viral suppression, and risk reduction among people who inject drugs and live with HIV. With Vietnam now working to scale this model nationwide, Pham and the research team recognized the critical need for a tool that could reliably measure fidelity, not only checking whether essential counseling tasks were completed but assessing how they were delivered—whether counselors used motivational interviewing, responded to participant needs, and maintained fidelity to the model’s core components.
To address this gap, Pham developed a unique fidelity assessment instrument through a rigorous, multi‑phase process. With researchers at UNC Project Vietnam, she reviewed existing fidelity frameworks, adapted them to the SNaP model, and identified four essential dimensions: content adherence, counselor competency, quality of delivery, and participant responsiveness. They then built an evaluation system that blended task‑based scoring with Likert‑scale ratings of counseling skills—capturing both clinical precision and interpersonal quality.
After extensive training, multiple raters assessed mock and real counseling sessions, producing exceptionally strong inter‑rater reliability (ICC = 0.89). This level of agreement demonstrated that even complex psychosocial interventions can be measured objectively at scale when paired with structured tools and thorough rater preparation. The model is already being applied to other studies involving counseling components, with potential national relevance as Vietnam expands supportive services for key populations. Pham’s work will not only strengthen HIV service delivery today, but it will also chart a path for future adaptation of evidence‑based behavioral interventions across Southeast Asia.
Participating Scholars
Following is a listing of participating students and their topics.
- “Mental health needs of women who use methamphetamine in Vietnam: Preliminary findings from a qualitative study” – Trang Nguyen, VISA/LMIC Senior Fellow
- “Perspectives on the role of providers in addressing unhealthy alcohol use among people with HIV in Vietnam: a qualitative study” – Kim Ngan Nguyen, MSc, UNC Project Vietnam
- “The longitudinal association between methamphetamine use and depressive symptoms among people in methadone treatment” – Thuy Dao, PhD student in EpidemiologyVISA/LMIC PhD
- “Translating Contingency Management into Routine Methadone Care: Implementation Lessons from a Resource-Constrained Setting” and
- “Applying contingency management to improve treatment engagement in the methadone program in Hanoi and Haiphong, Vietnam” – Hue Nguyen, PhD, VISA D43 Postdoc
- “How do online platforms facilitate or inhibit chemsex among key populations: A scoping review” – Thi Huong Dang, MD, Visiting Scholar
Altogether, scholarly work reflected a united commitment to improving care for populations navigating overlapping vulnerabilities. Student projects illustrated how scientific inquiry, community engagement, and innovative implementation strategies can reinforce and transform Vietnam’s health system.