Tom Nguyen of Baptist Health has a mission to transform cardiac care

Tom Nguyen, MD, says he has a special affinity for the underdog.

The chief medical executive of the Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute, part of Baptist Health, Nguyen understands those who have faced disadvantages because of his own personal experiences.

His family came to the United States from Vietnam when he was just one year old, and his father raised two kids by himself. Growing up in Texas, his family had very little money.

So Nguyen says he sees an obligation to help those who have the deck stacked against them.

“The person that people have forgotten, or want to give up on, are the ones that I will double down on and do what we can to try to help,” Nguyen says. “And I kind of feel that that's my way of paying it forward a little bit.”

In a recent interview with Chief Healthcare Executive®, Nguyen talked about his journey to become a physician and a healthcare leader. He shared his passion for medicine and his hopes to transform cardiac care in Miami and Florida.

(See part of our conversation in this video. The story continues below.)

The value of work

Nguyen is blunt in describing his childhood in Texas. “We were poor,” he says.

“It was a hard time, but in many ways, I think, … hardship kind of builds character and resilience,” he says.

Nguyen says his father worked very hard, taking whatever job he could, whether it was in a convenience store or working as a welder. Nguyen says he carried his father’s work ethic.

When he attended Rice University, he says, with some laughs, that he wasn’t a valedictorian in high school like some of his other students.

“I thought I was gonna get completely smoked,” Nguyen says. “But, you know, actually I just outworked everybody. I did really well at Rice. I just worked hard.”

Nguyen also possessed big dreams, and sought a career in medicine. Nguyen became a cardiac surgeon and later served as chief of cardiothoracic surgery at the University of California, San Francisco.

“It was very natural. Medicine was just this magical path,” Nguyen says.

He talks with palpable enthusiasm about working with patients.

"You get to have a conversation with people, and they share you things with you that no one else knows," he says. "And then you're using science to really help them and try to make them better, which is the coolest thing."

But Nguyen also feels a responsibility to help those with challenging circumstances.

“Because of my story and because of what I do, I realize that there are a lot of people out there who are deserving … but the way the cards were dealt, or where they're from, that they don't have the opportunities. And I do believe healthcare is a right, and everyone deserves just good quality healthcare,” he says.

A year ago, he moved to Florida to become chief medical executive at the Miami Cardiac Vascular Institute. And he has some big goals.

• Read more: Building the Miami Cancer Institute: Turning vision to reality

Aiming to transform care

Nguyen says he’s a physician at heart, and he finds great satisfaction in helping patients. But he also says he was drawn to pursuing leadership roles.

“I've always been a builder. I've always been a dot connector. I've always been kind of putting people together,” he says.

“I enjoy helping individual patients, but I also realize that the most effective way to scale and help people is through leadership positions where you're running an organization,” Nguyen explains. “Because I can only at the end of the day see ‘X’ number of people per year or per day. But in putting teams together, then you can affect populations.”

And he says that’s one of the appealing aspects of his role with Baptist Health.

“I get the best of both worlds, because I get to see patients individually, but I also get to try to make decisions on how we can affect populations and make groups of people's lives better,” he says.

Nguyen sees an opportunity to improve cardiac care across South Florida.

“I came here with a very clear mission in mind,” Nguyen says. “I didn't come here to sit around. I didn't leave UCSF, being chief of cardiothoracic surgery, to sit around. I'm coming here to try to transform cardiovascular medicine for the hospital system, for the city and for the state.”

Nguyen sees Miami as an ideal place to be, since South Florida continues to grow at a rapid clip. “People are moving here in droves,” he says.

Plus, there’s growing demand with both an influx of new residents and an aging population.

And he sees Baptist Health as well positioned to serve this growing market, with a footprint of 12 hospitals in the Miami region.

“We're incredibly financially sound. We have great leadership. We have a nimble team,” Nguyen says.

“So with me, with interest in cardiothoracic surgery and cardiovascular medicine and leadership, it made sense to come here to do something, hopefully, that's transformative,” he says.

In the next few years, Nguyen says he hopes to launch a cardiothoracic surgery training program.

Eventually, Nguyen wants to develop a “nationally recognized academic cardiovascular program in Miami.”

Nguyen says he wants to provide patients with a much better experience, one that is substantially different. “I think the right way is to think of it in the eyes of a patient,” he says.

Nguyen uses an analogy of an F1 race car pit crew to envision a different kind of patient care experience. When a driver comes in for a pit stop, the whole crew descends on the car to replace the tires and make any necessary repairs.

Instead of sending patients to different specialists for different needs, Nguyen wants to create a model where everyone converges on the patient.

“I'm excited about changing the paradigm of how we think about medicine,” he says.