The Prime Minister on June 3, 2020 approved the national digital transformation program to 2025, with the vision until 2030, which shows eight priority fields, including the national healthcare system.

Dang Thanh Hung from Children Hospital No 1

A plan on digital transformation for the healthcare sector is based on the national program. It is expected that 100 percent of online public services in the sector will meet level 4 by 2025, and will be integrated into the national portal.

Under the plan, 90 percent of people and 100 percent of healthcare officers will be digitally identified, 60 percent of healthcare services will be paid under electronic payment methods, 20 percent of medical examination and treatment will be implemented from a distance, and 50 percent of registrations for medical examination will be implemented online.

Nguyen Truong Nam, deputy director of the IT Application Agency under the Ministry of Health (MOH), said that digital transformation is a gradual process of integrating and utilizing digital technology, such as Big Data, Cloud Computing, IoT and AI in the healthcare sector's fields. Digital transformation will change the face of Vietnam’s healthcare sector.

It will change the way of management and working of individuals and units in the sector, and provide healthcare services in a quick, effective way to people on the digital platform.

It is expected that by 2030, digital technology application will be made in most activities and services to form a smart healthcare sector. Electronic medical records will be used instead of paper records.

Through these operations, MOH aims to build a high-quality, fair and internationally integrated healthcare system, where people can easily access information to use services, and have lifelong healthcare services.

Challenges

Children Hospital No 1 in HCM City has been actively going ahead with digital transformation. This is a first-class pediatric hospital, in charge of 13 cities and provinces in the Mekong Delta.

Dang Thanh Hung, head of the IT division, said the hospital began applying IT and digitizing its activities very early. The biggest challenge of digital transformation is the lack of IT staff.

In 1994-2003, the hospital digitized patients’ information and treasures. In 2004, it began digitizing inpatient examination cost recording. In 2006-2014, some chronic medical records and professional records were digitized.

Some outstanding products of the digital transformation process of the hospital include smart drug bidding software and IoT application in drug warehouse management. 

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Digital technology in the health service

Professor Tran Quy Tuong, director general of the Agency of Information Technology at the Ministry of Health, talks about the use of electronic health records.