Measures to develop smart healthcare in Vietnam

The Information Technology Development Project for Smart Healthcare in the 2019-2025 period has been approved by the Minister of Health Care to apply and develop digital and smart technologies in the health sector, contributing to building a modern, high-quality, equal, effective and integrated healthcare system in Vietnam.

Many hospitals have developed smart medical examination and treatment.
Many hospitals have developed smart medical examination and treatment.

The smart technologies will help people to easily access information and use health services effectively.

The project has three specific goals, with the first being towards developing and gradually forming a smart health care and disease prevention system, contributing to the implementation of Vietnam's health programme. It also aims to strengthen the application of information technology in all medical examination and treatment facilities, towards administrative reform and reducing overcrowding at hospitals as well as the use of electronic medical records to form smart hospitals. The third goal is to enhance the application of information technology in health management, develop an electronic office system, public service portal and electronic one-stop information system on administrative procedures.

The Ministry of Health (MoH) has set out tasks and measures to achieve the goals, focusing on perfecting the legal documents, standards, regulations and techno-economic norms. The development of health information technology infrastructure and a national health data centre that can store and manage sufficient centralised data for the health sector, as well as the building of specialised medical data centres and a gene data centre of Vietnamese people, have been also mentioned. In addition, the Ministry emphasised the development of a smart health care and disease prevention system, contributing to the successful implementation of Vietnam's health programme. An electronic health record is expected to be built for the entire population, striving to ensure that 100% of people have electronic health records by 2025. The use of artificial intelligence applications in monitoring and alerting epidemics across the country as well as applications that provide knowledge of disease prevention, medical examination and treatment will be promoted.

The building of a smart medical examination and treatment system will be accelerated, focusing on completing hospital management and digitising software and electronic medical records at healthcare facilities as well as developing artificial intelligence in medical examination and treatment. It is crucial to build a smart health management with the implementation of an electronic medical administration and online public services. The MoH will develop its public service portal and will be added to the national one-door customs and ASEAN one-door mechanism. In addition the research, development and application of smart technologies in healthcare will be prioritised, while measures will be implemented to raise public awareness of the role and benefits of smart healthcare. The direct and online support channels will also be used for enterprises and community.

According to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Quy Tuong, Director of Information Technology under the MoH, the project will contribute to forming a smart disease prevention and health care system, helping people actively prevent diseases and easily access medical information as well as receive proper and effective advice and support.

With the smart medical examination and treatment system, people will be able to use advanced medical examinations and treatments. The system will contribute to reducing hospital overcrowding, improving the quality of medical checks-up and treatment at hospitals, and limiting human errors. The smart health management will help management agencies to set policies and timely decisions based on the ability to analyse big data, manage and monitor the performance of the entire epidemic network and increase the ability to respond quickly to unexpected situations. The formation of a smart medical system will contribute to improving quality of health services in Vietnam, towards a modern, high-quality, equal, effective and integrated healthcare system.