Quan K. Nguyen

an ordinary mind

Quan K. Nguyen’s personal corner: research, writing and things I build.

Đọc bằng tiếng Việt

I love building things that matter and sharing them with the wider community. Trained as a physician (Hue University) and in epidemiology and biostatistics (MPH, Johns Hopkins), I am a Research Fellow at VinUniversity and an International Scholar at Penn’s Center for Global Health, applying epidemiological methods and R programming to model disease burden and dynamics.

So far, my projects have focused on how much disease there is and where it concentrates. My next chapter is about building solutions: combining disease modeling, diagnostic and economic evaluation, and pragmatic trials to strengthen infectious disease control in resource-limited settings, showing not just what works but what is feasible, reliable, and affordable.

Outside research, I make study tools for what I am learning myself, like a GRE vocabulary app and a Mandarin guide for the HSK (see Learn & Build, with my courses and books).

I profoundly love music, and I start each day with a cup of coffee I make myself. Away from the desk, I listen to everything from Sinatra and Rachmaninoff to Motown, R&B, C-pop, and V-pop. I also sing now and then and spend my downtime learning the guitar.

Current role

Research Fellow at the College of Health Sciences, VinUniversity (since 2025), where I am principal investigator of a VinUniversity Seed Grant on ESKAPE+ antimicrobial resistance, and International Scholar at the Center for Global Health, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. I am also an analyst and co-investigator in Vietnam’s national AMR data-to-policy program with the Ministry of Health, VinUniversity and US CDC (since 2026), which takes the Seed Grant’s work from one institution to the national scale.

Selected work

A “paradox of progress” shapes the social determinants of infectious diseases in Vietnam, 1975–2025.
Quan NK, Taylor-Robinson AW. Nature Communications, 2026. doi:10.1038/s41467-026-71419-7

Not All That Grows is TB: High Prevalence of TB-Negative Cultures Among Household Contacts in South Africa.
Quan NK, Hanrahan CF, Nonyane BAS, Omar SV, Ahmed K, Martinson NA, Dowdy DW. International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, 2026.

Prevalence and population attributable fraction of metabolic dysfunction–associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) in Vietnam: burden estimates from the VINcohort Healthcheck Study.
Quan NK, Mo TT, Long HB, Chi TTD, Quyet NV, Solitano V, Dorn J, Trevisan M, Shu XO, Tung PT, Linh LC. BMJ Public Health, 2026.

[R4DS-VN] R for Data Science, official Vietnamese edition.
I am its sole translator, endorsed by Hadley Wickham and O’Reilly. The original is by Hadley Wickham, Mine Çetinkaya-Rundel and Garrett Grolemund. vn.r4ds.hadley.nz

[EPI-VN] Dịch tễ học: Từ ý nghĩa đến phương pháp (Epidemiology: from meaning to method).
A free Vietnamese practical epidemiology guide for clinicians and preventive medicine professionals – unpacking research methods through real-world questions and cognitive pitfalls rather than formula memorization or programming skills. Read the book

[R4HE-VN] Mô hình Kinh tế Y tế với R (Health economic modeling with R).
A free course in Vietnamese: Markov models, microsimulation, transmission models and AMR economics, built from scratch in R with infectious-disease examples from Vietnam. Open the course

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