People go to Da Nang Hospital for examination and treatment in Da Nang City.

Nguyen Truong Nam, deputy head of the Information and Technology Department, under the Ministry of Health, said electronic medical records had been built since 2019 by three units – the department, Viettel Telecom and the Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group.

Currently, electronic medical records are not connected between hospitals and health facilities in 50 provinces and cities nationwide, he said.

Nam said following the ministry’s requirements, the data must be connected among the hospitals and health facilities from July.

Service providers were told to create accounts and provide security codes for each individual so they can access their electronic medical records and update their data from July 1, Thanh Niên (Young People) newspaper reported.

At first, electronic medical records would update data of each individual’s outpatient examinations, he said.

The data was believed to be a basis for doctors to track the progress of a patient’s health, he said.

When the electronic medical records are connected among health facilities in the country from July 1, patients would not have to bring printed medical records with them for follow-up examinations, he said.

Notably, the electronic medical records would include the COVID-19 vaccination details of each individual, including injection time and post-injection reactions to serve vaccine passport creation, he said.

Electronic medical records would, however, lack updated data for inpatient examination and treatment. It was complex to update this kind of data because of a lack of consensus among hospitals, he said.

Tran Quy Tuong, head of the department, said the electronic medical records would help people manage their health data for a lifetime.

The electronic medical record was not only a store of personal health data but also support for the health sector to get complete and accurate health data of people in the country, he said.

He said if managed well, the data could improve quality of life and reduce treatment costs by diagnosing people with diseases earlier. 

VNS

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