Tuyen T. Tran, MD, MBA

Dr. Tran emigrated to the United States in 1976 and became a naturalized citizen.

Dr. Tran attended the University of Missouri–Kansas City’s six-year program (combined undergraduate and medical school) where he earned a BS in Biology/Chemistry and an MD degree. He completed an orthopedic surgery residency at the Medical College of Wisconsin.
While moonlighting in the local Emergency Departments, one of the hospitals asked him to be their Medical Director. After a few years, he recognized the need to acquire managerial and economic skills so he went back to school and earned an MBA at Regis University. And since he wanted to take care of the entire patient, Dr. Tran completed an internal medicine resdiency at the University of Kentucky. He completed a fellowship in Patient Safety and Quality at UK/VA in Lexington. He is board certified in Addiction Medicine, addressing the opioid epidemic which has plagued our society. Additional training of note included the KMA Kentucky Physician Leadership Institute, the VA Leadership Institute, and Black Belt certification for Lean Manufacturing.

He began working as an emergency physician and hospitalist, progressed to become assistant Chief of Medicine, then Medical Director of the Endoscopy suite, before assuming his current position. Dr. Tran's duties are to improve the institution’s mortality, hospital readmissions, physician productivity and efficiency, hospital flow, and Telehealth program. The Lexington VAMC moved from a 2-star hospital rating to a 5-star, and is only one of 11 VA hospitals out of 150+ facilities nationwide to achieve a 5-star rating.

He also enjoys teaching the UK residents and medical students who rotate to the VA for their clinical electives. Since 2009, He has served as the physician member of UK’s IRB (Institutional Review Board, a panel that insures the safety of human subjects in research) and the vice-chair of the VA’s IRB. In March of 2017, Dr. Tran was detailed for three months to Montgomery, Alabama, to serve as the Chief of Staff for two VA Medical Facilities.

He opened 2nd Chance Clinic in 2012 to treat opioid use disorder.