The doctors included Prof. Byron Bailey from the University of Texas Medical School, Prof. David Parsons from the University of Missouri, Prof. Brent Senior from the University of North Carolina, Prof. Craig Hedges from the University of South Dakota, and Toby Morgan from the University of Rome, Georgia.

A representative of REI-Vietnam, Nguyen Phuong Lien, was also honoured for her coordination in running the programme.

REI is a US non-government organisation that was set up in April 1992. It began providing medical assistance to Vietnam in 1993 and later to many other fields including ear-nose-throat (ENT), for which the five US doctors are specialists.

REI-Vietnam sends more than 100 doctors and nurses to Vietnam annually and has provided scholarships to 60 Vietnamese doctors, including 23 ENT specialists for their training courses of between 1-6 months in the US. The NGO also donated equipment, surgical instruments and medicine worth US$3 million to Vietnamese hospitals.