Primary fields of research

My research in Clinical Epidemiology and Public Engagement focuses on developing, bridging and applying robust methods for causation and prediction addressing the translational complexity of real-world evidence, practice, and teaching in medicine and public health. My research is articulated around:

• Developing and applying innovative and robust causal inference and prediction modelling methods to generate real-world evidence for comparative treatment effectiveness and precision medicine: target trial emulation, individualised treatment rules, clinical prediction models;
• Enhancing the understanding of real-world health complexity, by bridging the translational gap between serparate worlds of knowledge: advanced statistical/epidemiological methods, clinical medicine and pharmacy, philosophy of education, art, spirituality, and community building;
• Nurturing and sustaining the practice of compassion and kindness in research, teaching, societal engagement, as a concrete and immediate public health action in my everyday life. Read: Nguyen & Lee (2025) | Kindness as a Public Health Action.

I endorse the Excellence and Kindness in Research Training initiative (ELIS) for continuously nurturing a sustainable academic environment that is fundamental to the flourishing of our society (see: Excellence and Kindness in Research Training)

Teaching

I am responsible for the (co-)leadership of the following courses at the University of Copenhagen:

- "Statistics, Epidemiology and Social Medicine" | MSc in Medicine

- "Precision Medicine in Public Health" | PhD course

- "Playfulness and Connection in Teaching" | PhD course

- "Conducting and Reporting a Propensity Score Analysis" | PhD course

I am actively involved as a teacher in various other courses and as a supervisor (internship and/or thesis) in the BSc and MSc programmes of Medicine, Public Health Science, Global Health, and others.

I had the honour to be nominated for the Teacher of the Year Award (Årets Harald) in 2023.

Fields of interest

In addition to my research and teaching responsibility, I have created a novel platform for sharing societal reflections in the popular neighbourhood Nørrebro, Copenhagen, Denmark: a hybrid pop-up named nở · bro, which carries the idea of blooming and growing (nở in Vietnamese) and of bridging and connecting (bro in Danish). Inspired by the ancient Greek agora, during two seasons (Jul 2022 and Jan/Feb 2023) I ran this ‘novel agora’ to connect people around societal reflections with workshops facilitated by researchers, art exhibitions with works of local artists, community dinners and other social events. The core idea of this ‘bottom-up’ initiative was to break down barriers between creative disciplines and practices, to integrate societal reflections into culture and facilitate knowledge-sharing within the local community. Over the two editions, the novel agora welcomed hundreds of visitors. More information on Instagram: @no.hoi.bro.

Possible conflicts of interest

I have received remuneration for teaching causal inference methods using self-kindness as exposure, in a seminar for real-world evidence at Novo Nordisk, Søborg, Denmark.