The Ministry of Health yesterday organized an offline and online conference at 1,200 locations across the country to summarize and evaluate digital transformation activities in 2023 and deploy the medical sector's 2024 action plan with the message ‘Connect - Share - Accompany’.
Chairing the conference, Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan stated that digital transformation is an inevitable and mandatory requirement to help countries enhance economic development, improve quality of life and promote social progress and prosperity in each country.
The healthcare field is no exception to that general trend and the process of medical digital transformation is both an inevitable requirement and a driving force for the development of the medical sector in the new era.
According to Minister Dao Hong Lan, the health sector will focus on the propagation of digital transformation to raise people’s awareness about this in the coming time. Moreover, the Ministry will submit a decree regulating medical data management to the Government’s approval to promulgate; plus, the Ministry will amend and promptly issue guiding documents to promote medical digital transformation.
Last but not least, the Ministry will promote the construction of medical data center infrastructure towards the formation of a national database to create a foundation for implementing a digital government on health to implement the national data strategy until 2030.
The Minister of Health said that it is necessary to raise awareness among agencies and units in the health sector about digital transformation to achieve successful digital transformation. Only then can the sector mobilize financial resources and human resources for the implementation of effective digital transformation.
At the same time, reviewing institutions and regulatory documents must be done. Institutions need to create conditions for the implementation of digital transformation in units focusing on developing and upgrading health information systems on digital platforms, improving the quality of health services from the issue of building electronic health records and hospital management information, artificial intelligence applications, deployment of remote medical examination and treatment.
In 2023, the National Health Information Center piloted a platform to support remote medical examination and treatment consultation in provinces such as Tra Vinh, Khanh Hoa, Vinh Phuc and Thai Binh Children's Hospital. More than 1,700 doctors have so far participated in the program with over 300,000 medical profiles of patients on the system and more than 260,000 accounts.
