Conference on AI application in cancer treatment launched

The Electronic Health Administration (EHA) under the Ministry of Health yesterday held the conference ‘Artificial Intelligence (AI) Application to Healthcare in Vietnam’ in Hanoi.

The conference on applying AI in healthcare. Photo by TB
The conference on applying AI in healthcare. Photo by TB

Associate Professor Dr. Tran Quy Tuong, Head of EHA, stated that the implementation of information technology in the healthcare field is to modernize and improve this field while preparing for the international integration. The application is also expected to help citizens easily approach effective healthcare services no matter where or when they are in order to be well protected in their whole life, said Dr. Tuong.

The Head of EHA also affirmed that implementing AI in healthcare is unavoidable to amend potential medical risks and ease the workload in many hospitals, leading to higher patient satisfaction. However, this application requires a close collaboration among related units to adjust the technology to best suit the Vietnamese society.

In the conference, various new solutions for AI application were presented, clearly demonstrating the practicality of this technology in Vietnam as to improving hospital management tasks and diagnosis and treatment quality, increasing health care, and reducing the rate of Vietnamese people having their disease treated abroad.

Many AI experts from Five9 Vietnam and IBM delivered their speech on systems to apply AI in healthcare such as IBM Watson for Oncology and IBM Watson for Genomic.

The first is an AI system to suggest a suitable treatment therapy for cancer. After the piloting time in the National Cancer Hospital, the Ho Chi Minh City Oncology Hospital, and Phu Tho General Hospital, the Ministry of Health has formed an evaluation board for the software IBM Watson for Oncology in medical treatment in Vietnam and concluded that this software does contribute to the performance improvement in cancer treatment. It is, therefore, encouraged to be widely used nationwide.

Although there is still a limit in the number of patient cases, all the three above hospitals display the similar rate of effectiveness when applying therapies suggested by AI in this software.

In the event, both the two leading oncology hospital in Vietnam confirmed that they will increasingly use AI in preparing a suitable treatment therapy for cancer patients.

Representative of IBM Watson Health expressed their wish to better and more comprehensively cooperate with the Vietnamese Ministry of Health as well as Five9 Vietnam in researching & developing and implementing AI solutions in healthcare.

In response, Five9 Vietnam committed to continuing the AI application in the nation so that more patients are able to take advantage of modern technologies.

Taking part in the conference were domestic and international technological businesses, research institutes, leading Vietnamese technological universities. The conference also welcomed the participation of Five9 Vietnam Joint Stock Co., which is implementing IBM Watson for Oncology in the country, and representatives of IBM Watson Health from IBM USA.

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