Dr. David M. Truong: The 37-Year Journey From USC Honors to AI Pioneer

Fountain Valley, California Nov 19, 2025 (Issuewire.com) - After more than 37 years of practicing medicine, leading clinical trials, shaping medical education, and treating thousands of patients across California, Dr. David M. Truong is embarking on the most defining chapter of his career: building the Healthelic platform, an AI medical platform with a physician-like AI model designed to think, reason, and care like a real human medical expert with the most up-to-date, evidence-based medical knowledge to assist physicians and patients.

The transition isnt a departure from medicineit is the culmination of it.

Dr. Truongs journey began long before AI entered mainstream healthcare. It started in Paris, France, when, after being accepted into its highly competitive medical school program, he decided to continue his education in the US. He landed in California, took a few weeks to improve his English by taking an ESL course, and applied to the premedical honors program in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at USC, where he graduated 3 years later, Summa Cum Laude. He then earned a Doctor of Medicine degree from UC Davis, followed by a rigorous Internal Medicine residency at UCLA and a Gastroenterology fellowship at Tufts University. Decades later, those foundations, such as scientific precision, pattern recognition, analytical rigor, and a relentless curiosity, now converge in his mission to solve one of Americas greatest healthcare challenges: the growing burden on physicians.

A Career Built on Science, Service, and Leadership

For nearly three decades, Dr. Truong has practiced medicine at the highest standards:

  Owner of a thriving specialty gastroenterology practice since 2001
  Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at UC Irvine (2000present)
  Part of a multi-center, multi-specialty research team leading a regional endoscopic team in  Phase 14 drug trials of now the FDA-approved DUOPA® for the treatment of advanced Parkinsons disease 

His work has earned national recognition, including:

  Recognition from President Barack Obama for advisory contributions to the Affordable Care Act
  Honorary Chairman for the House Majority Trust & President George W. Bushs Dinner
  Physician of the Year (2003)  National Republican Congressional Committee
  Milo Don Appleman Jr. M.D. Award (USC) for the best graduating senior in Biological Sciences

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As a respected clinician, research investigator, educator, and community leader, his credibility spans medicine, academia, and healthcare policy. Yet despite every achievement, Dr. Truong repeatedly saw the same universal struggle across all physician groups: documentation overload, burnout, rising medical complexity, shrinking clinical time, and escalating risk of human error.

This observation sparked the next phase of his legacy.

The Turning Point: Why a Veteran Physician Turned to AI

The idea behind Healthelic did not begin with technology.
It began with frustration, shared by every physician Dr. Truong trained, taught, supervised, or collaborated with.

When a doctor spends more time typing than thinking, medicine suffers, Dr. Truong explains. AI should not replace physiciansit should restore them.

Two elements of his background converged to make this possible:

1. Deep clinical expertise across gastroenterology, internal medicine, hospital medicine, and clinical trials.

2. Early programming and data-processing experience from USC in the 1980s, long before AI became mainstream.

This unique blend, rare in todays medical landscape, gave Dr. Truong the vision to design a medical AI that reasons like a human clinician, prioritizes clinical safety, flags inconsistencies, and supports physicians at every training level.

Building Healthelic: AI for the Physicians Journey

Healthelic is not another generic AI tool.
It is a 24/7 clinical copilot, built by a physician and shaped by real-world medical needs.

M2, the first mode, is engineered to help physicians with:

  Optimizing and proofreading SOAP notes
  Prioritizing relevant medical information
  Suggesting differential diagnoses and treatment plans
  Reducing medical errors in real time
  Using the latest guidelines and research to improve physicians' work and improve health outcomes for their patients
  Supporting residents, attendees, and specialists alike

Unlike typical AI tools, Healthelic is contextual and clinically intelligent, communicating with the physician in a natural voice conversation like a human colleague.
It remembers details, asks clarifying questions, maintains reasoning flow, checks data against the latest up-to-date and evidence-based medical information, and adapts to a physicians style, much like a seasoned medical expert.

Doctors often tell me they wish they had more time and need more help, Dr. Truong says. Healthelic gives them back that time by providing a 24/7 assistant, improving safety and accuracy, and reducing medical errors.

A Physician-Led Vision for the Future of Healthcare

As Founder and CEO of Healthelic Inc., Dr. Truong now leads a team of ex-Amazon and ex-Google machine-learning experts and expert physicians to build one of the worlds most advanced medical reasoning models. His vision is ambitious yet grounded in clinical reality:

1. Restore clinical focus
By reducing administrative and cognitive burdens.

2. Improve diagnostic accuracy
Through real-time reasoning support tied to validated medical evidence.

3. Strengthen physicianpatient relationships
By freeing physicians from excessive charting.

4. Support residents and new clinicians
With on-demand clinical guidance shaped by real practice, not theoretical models.

5. Build an AI that thinks with doctors, not for them
Ensuring the physician remains the ultimate decision-maker. The Journey That Makes Healthelic Possible

From the beginning, Dr. Truongs academic and professional path pointed toward this moment:

• USC Molecular Biology Honors Program scientific thinking
• USC Programming certification computational problem-solving
• MD from UC Davis clinical foundation
• UCLA Internal Medicine systems-level reasoning
• Tufts Fellowship subspecialty depth
• Clinical trials understanding limitations of human judgment
• Professorship at UCI commitment to teaching
• Private practice owner firsthand knowledge of physician pain points
• FDA-approved DUOPA trial leadership experience with data, evidence, and innovation

Every phase sharpened the perspective behind Healthelic:

Medicine needs a tool that advances with physicians, not ahead of them.

Quote from Dr. David M. Truong

Healthelic is the product of every patient Ive treated, every student Ive trained, and every lesson medicine has taught me. My goal is simple: give physicians a thinking partner that elevates the quality of care while protecting the humanity of medicine.

About Dr. David M. Truong

David M. Truong, MD, is a board-certified gastroenteologist, clinical research investigator, medical AI founder, and Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California, Irvine. With over 37 years of clinical practice, he has led multi-phase FDA clinical trials, contributed to national healthcare policy, and treated diverse patient populations across California.

A Summa Cum Laude graduate of USC and an MD graduate from UC Davis, Dr. Truong has lived and experienced the culture of three continents. He speaks English, French, and Vietnamese and remains committed to advancing medical innovation that supports both physicians and patients.