BIS Research estimates that apps in healthcare will help save $100-150 billion a year. While Big Data and AI can increase the reliability of diagnoses and foresee diseases, blockchain is believed to be the key in EHR management.

In Vietnam, long queues of patients waiting for their turn to have medical examination at hospitals are common. One of the causes is poor EHR management, which leads to a lack of information about patients’ medical history. This can lead to risks during treatment, increase healthcare costs, and waste society’s resources.

The Ministry of Health’s decision on implementing EHR management aims to have least 95 percent of individuals’ health records managed. 

In the first two quarters of 2019, EHR management software will be applied on a trial basis in eight provinces before use throughout the country.

“EHR helps every individual know and manage information about their health throughout their lives, and speeds up the diagnosis and treatment process,” said Tran Quy Tuong from the Ministry of Health’s IT Agency. 

EHR is not a new concept. The term appeared 30 years ago in countries with advanced healthcare sectors that provided databases to management agencies to design social policies. EHR was also helpful to insurance companies and companies’ personnel divisions.

However, fraud in insurance made it difficult to carry out EHR. The Financial Times reported that 3,500 cases related to prescription fraud were discovered over the last decade, causing a total loss of $12.5 billion. In 2017, 50 physicians in the US were accused of embezzling $1.3 billion from fraudulent drug prescriptions.

With blockchain, when data is stored in the form of block chains and managed by patients, any amendments in information will be recorded.

In addition, medical records can be attacked by hackers who want to steal or illegally change information. Blockchain could be the solution to the problem

Nguyen Van Cong, of Hanoi, has developed Imprint, an EHR app on the blockchain platform. “Giving patients the right to manage EHR will help Vietnam’s medical document management fit regulations, including the GDPR, or General Data Protection Regulation of the EU,” Cong said.

Vietnam has an important position in the world’s blockchain map as it is among the countries which began blockchain R&D very soon. Vietnamese technology firms have been seeking ways to utilize blockchain in hi-tech agriculture, finance & banking, healthcare, transport and public services.

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