Professor Maurizio Trevisan, Dean of the College of Health Sciences

When a romantic Italian becomes a disciplined doctor

Life

People often have the impression that doctors are conservative and nerdy people who only memorize huge amounts of medical knowledge. However, the Dean of VinUni’s College of Health Sciences,Dr. Maurizio Trevisan, does not conform to this stereotype.

Born in the South of Italy, our professor takes pride in himself as the quintessential representative of the local people, who demonstrate inspiration in every part of their work  and appearance. At VinUniversity, students are usually impressed by Dr. Trevisan’s colorful collection of glasses. Some days he wears blue glasses, other days he opts for green or red glasses. Since glasses are part and parcel of his daily life, by changing their color, he brings about inspiration and refreshment every day. He has a hobby of purchasing and collecting glasses when he travels to different places around the world, such as Rome, London, or New York. “When I wander through the streets or browse through stalls at the airport, when I see an interesting pair of glasses in a store window, I just walk in and see what I can get,  Dr. Trevisan said with a smile.

After finishing medical school in Italy, Dr. Trevisan moved to the United States on a fellowship program to study Preventive Cardiology. This experience changed his life forever because it gave him an incredible foundation from which to launch future career development. Dr. Trevisan was the founding Dean of the University at Buffalo School of Public Health and Health Professions, a school based on a core curriculum shared by different health professions. More recently, he led the efforts to establish a new Medical School at the City University of New York as the school’s founding Dean.  The school’s goal was to give young talents from underserved and underrepresented communities  the opportunity to pursue a medical career,   and to provide quality healthcare to these underserved communities. After this, Dr. Trevisan flew to Hanoi and became the Dean of  VinUniversity’s College of Health Science – the third  school he contributed to founding.

In the 21st century, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, doctors have been expected to become more empathic, caring, agile , and creative in order to adapt to a volatile and ever-changing world. Realizing the importance of these qualities, the College of Health Sciences is making great efforts to cultivate a new generation of doctors through an innovative Medical Doctor’s curriculum aimed at fostering compassion, originality, and lifelong learning. Dr. Trevisan knows that empathy is crucial to become a good doctor. Therefore, apart from being exposed to advanced and specialized knowledge, students also learn how to communicate and be compassionate with patients and their families. The College of Health Sciences’ curriculum additionally  emphasizes curiosity, which motivates students to seek answers to big questions and to make sense of their surrounding world. Students are taught how to search for appropriate reference materials and access core sources of medical knowledge instead of routinely memorizing everything.

When our professor first moved to Hanoi in 2019, he fell in love with the city at first sight. “I found the Vietnamese extremely nice and gentle. The traffic in Hanoi reminded me of my hometown in Italy, which is chaotic as well. Another thing that struck me is the conscientiousness of Vietnamese youth. A lot of young people are working very hard to create a good future for themselves and society. It was then that I realized that the future of the world lies in Asia. There’s a lot of energy here.’ – shared Dr. Trevisan.