Professor Le Huu Song, Director of the Central Military Hospital 108 (Hanoi), spoke recently on the sidelines of the Vietnam Healthcare Forum 2025, on "Application of big data and AI in medical diagnosis and treatment," held on July 21-22, 

He said that Vietnam’s healthcare system still faces challenges in adopting AI and Big Data.

Song noted that the technological foundation and infrastructure are the first challenge. Bandwidth and server systems are not yet fully standardized. There are plenty of data and figures ‘vehicles’, but a lack of ‘highways’ for data to flow slowly. 

The second challenge is data itself. The healthcare sector has a vast data repository, but is it "clean," "live," "standardized," unified, and valuable?

According to Song, healthcare data are in paper form, with paper medical records, where each doctor and nurse has different writing styles, lacking uniformity. The transitioning to electronic medical records (EMRs) poses a significant issue. 

"To date, not all hospitals have true EMRs," Song said, adding that while healthcare data may be vast, it has not been effectively utilized.

The decisive factor, which is also the biggest challenge, is people, with their fear of change. With electronic medical records, the process from expertise to management must be built to standards. Not every unit or individual wants that. Some people even have the mentality that if there is a change, they will no longer be able to "shortcut" or skip steps in the standardization process.

"To apply AI and big data, it ultimately comes down to addressing a problem: people must generate standardized data, which requires a mindset shift and adherence to standard processes. That’s the foundation for AI to 'learn' and develop," Song emphasized.

Large hospitals lag in digital transformation

EMRs are the core of digital transformation in healthcare, helping to improve the quality of medical examination and treatment, optimize management, storage, and information sharing, while ensuring data accuracy and security.

At a recent workshop on EMR implementation, Do Truong Duy, Director of the National Healthcare Information Center (Ministry of Health), stated that approximately 1,800 hospitals (public and private) nationwide are required to complete the transition from paper to electronic records by September 30. However, only 270 facilities have achieved this, with few being top-tier or highly specialized hospitals.

Song noted that larger, more specialized hospitals face greater difficulties and, therefore, go slowly in digital transformation.

"A small clinic or private hospital can adopt new processes quickly, but for long-established hospitals, it’s extremely challenging," Song said. He identified the core issue as "changing mindsets," noting that altering habits in larger organizations is particularly difficult.

Thus, despite determination, transformation is not easy. Moreover, hospitals have tens of thousands of different professional processes. Paper documents are not connected to each other. To transform digitally and use AI, all units, from clinical, paraclinical, to pharmacy, equipment and infection control, must be connected. 

"Only when the connection is complete will the system have value," said the doctor from the Central Military Hospital 108

Song said that the Central Military Hospital 108 is currently at the "computerized records" stage, not yet true EMRs, as data is not yet generated from initial inputs. The hospital has mainly digitized paper records and aims to fully implement EMRs by September 15.

Experts estimate that, on average, provincial hospitals need to invest over VND10 billion to implement EMRs. For large-scale hospitals like Bach Mai or Viet Duc, the investment is significantly higher.

Experts estimate that on average, provincial hospitals need to invest over VND10 billion to implement EMRs. For large-scale hospitals like Bach Mai or Viet Duc, the investment is significantly higher.

This will cover the costs for modern, stable IT infrastructure, hospital information systems (HIS), laboratory information systems (LIS), picture archiving and communication systems (PACS), and other hardware. Meanwhile, IT costs (including EMR implementation and operation) are not yet factored into medical service fees.

Prior to that, in April, the Ministry of Health directed specialized units to develop regulations incorporating IT costs into medical service fees, to be completed by June. However, no guidance has been issued to date.

Vo Thu