Dr. Uyen Truong Comes Full Circle at Gillette

Uyen Truong, MD, is a complex care physician at Gillette Children's. Dr. Truong specializes in pediatric general medicine and the coordination of complex care. Learn more about Dr. Truong.

Dr. Uyen Truong might be a new complex care provider at Gillette Children’s, but she is no stranger to the care that Gillette offers: “I was a Gillette patient starting when I was in fifth grade, which is when I broke my first bone,” Dr. Truong says. “I have brittle bone disease, and I was a patient of Dr. Koop’s until he retired.” (Dr. Steven Koop, who retired in 2021, was an orthopedic surgeon at Gillette for 35 years. He served as Gillette’s first medical director and is the first Teacher Emeritus at Gillette.)

A native of Eagan, Minnesota, Dr. Truong grew up in the south metro and attended the University of Minnesota Medical School before moving to Austin, Texas to complete her residency. “When I reflect, I moved to Austin because I wanted a change of scenery and to see how other medical systems do things. After I moved to Texas, I told myself that the only way I would ever move back to Minnesota was if I could provide complex care at Gillette.”

Much to Gillette’s good fortune, Dr. Truong accepted a role as a complex care provider in the summer of 2023. “It helped to go somewhere else and realize that we have great resources at Gillette.” 

Dr. Truong appreciates Gillette’s message and mission. “Gillette really humanizes patients and treats each of them as an individual, rather than as a series of diagnoses.” 

“I like having close connections with patient families, and I knew that I wanted that continuity, but I also enjoy the complexity of thinking about and determining diagnoses,” Dr. Truong shares. She identifies with much of Gillette’s patient population with disabilities, having grown up in similar circumstances. “I like working with children who have complex medical needs,” she offers. “And I love the multidisciplinary aspect of complex care—Gillette has such great resources, from social work to nurse case managers to dietitians, and it was so nice to have access to specialists in areas like Orthopedics, Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, and Neurology to answer questions as I was trained in.” 

“I saw a patient who was a new immigrant,” Dr. Truong says. The severely malnourished patient was being cared for by their parents, who carefully fed them a liquid diet for the first few years of their life because the patient could not chew and swallow food without aspirating it into their lungs. “My team and I were able to get them admitted and get them a g-tube—now, the patient is properly nourished and growing. They are doing well in school and making great strides learning English. We were even able to work with social work and the nurse care managers to get the patient and their family some warm winter gear.” Dr. Truong and her team still meet regularly with the patient’s school team, which reports that the patient is making excellent progress, likes to socialize, and smiles often. 

Outside of work, “I enjoy exploring the city with my cousins and trying new restaurants,” shares Dr. Truong. “I also like to read, I crochet, and I like going to concerts—my last one was the Taylor Swift concert [at U.S. Bank Stadium], which actually determined the date I moved back to Minnesota!”