In recent years, Dong Nai’s health sector has not only made great efforts in changing its working style, spirit and attitude towards serving patients but also responded to the 4th industrial revolution in the application of information technology to improve the management, prevention, examination and treatment for the province’s people, thereby targeting the smart health whose beneficiaries are the people.

*A lot of utility software

Dr. Phan Huy Anh Vu, Director of Dong Nai Department of Health, said: “In recent times, Department of Health has strongly applied information technology to medical examination and treatment and health management as well as improved the quality of human resources, changed the working style and attitude of the medical staff in the health sector towards serving the people.

Since July, 2018 up to now, information technology has been applied strongly and widely by the health sector. Specifically, the provincial Department of Health has cooperated with Viettel Dong Nai and David Health Vietnam Joint Stock Company in continuously piloting the application of information technology to connect drug suppliers; managing individuals’ personal health records, Medcomm community health network, and electronic medical records.

Connecting medicine suppliers is to have the management, purchase, sales, and preservation of medicine and electronic invoices computerized. Also, the community health network Medcomm helps people seek for the information on medical and pharmaceutical facilities; and agencies manage statistics and release online reports to facilities in a quick and effective way.

The application of electronic medical record is an activity to look forward to eliminating paper medical books and records at hospitals and medical facilities and then solving the math problem of the overloading medical records in hospitals. Currently, 306/395 drug retailers in Dong Nai province have joined hands in using software to connect drugstores with more than 4,200 pharmaceutical facilities and nearly 1,700 medical facilities and participated in the Medcomm community health network.

Dong Nai Department of Health has chosen Dong Nai General Hospital and Long Khanh General Hospital to pilot electronic medical records. If the progress of application follows the roadmap, Dong Nai will be the first province to apply electronic medical records and connect personal health records.

Dr. Phan Huy Anh Vu said, Vietnam needs a smart health intrastructure if it wants to build a smart health system. Therefore, in addition to promoting the application of electronic medical records in hospitals, it is necessary to develop electronic health records for each citizen to connect them with each other.

At present, Dong Nai Department of Health is creating electronic health records for 3 million local residents, which include personal information, height, weight, blood types, medical history, and so on. The costs of application total nearly VND11 billion and the application is expected to be completed in 2019.

In the coming time, the health sector will start the application of a database system of food safety and nutrition for businesses and people can search for information here. The application and instructions for businesses to deal with the procedures on the system will be available in 2019.

*Using all the resources to build the smart health

As a unit selected to pilot the application of electronic medical records, Dr. Le Thi Phuong Tram, Deputy Director of Dong Nai General Hospital, said: “Building and applying electronic medical records in hospitals is significant in the digital transformation process of the health sector because it not only helps hospitals minimize the volume of paper records but helps doctors to give accurate diagnosis and treatment methods thanks to a scientific arrangement way. Also, electronic medical records can be easily shared among hospitals for reference and professional work during doctors’ medical consultancy or when patients are transferred to other hospitals.

Also, electronic medical records help reduce waiting time and cumbersome procedures for patients and their family members due to the fact that all the information related to doctors’ diagnosis, prescription, and medication is digitized, thereby making the settlement of procedures for medical examination and payment faster. If a patient loses his test results, he doesn’t have to worry about it because all the information is available on the system and it is very easy to access this information. In addition, patients can easily compare their test indicators and periodical health check-ups.

Director of Thong Nhat General Hospital Pham Van Dung said, although the hospital is not selected to pilot electronic medical records by the Department of Health in the first quarter of 2019, it has prepared a complete technology infrastructure for the application of electronic medical records in the earliest time with its available human resources and targets towards patients.

Particularly, Thong Nhat General Hospital will upgrade its data center to be able to store more information, ensure long-term storage safety. Simultaneously, it will install the corresponding software, supply registration services for digital signatures, and connect types of software with data for the synchronous information transferred to the Department of Health in comparison with other health facilities in the province.

According to Director of Dong Nai Department of Health Phan Huy Anh Vu, there have still existed a lot of difficulties in the building of the smart health in Dong Nai province but the provincial health sector is determined to use all its resources and take advantage of the assistance of levels of leaders, and concerned departments and sectors to achieve the above objectives and target the final destination - taking care of the public health.

Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Nguyen Hoa Hiep stressed, to be able to build a smart medical system not only requires the health sector’s great determination, especially what to do and how to do to overcome the challenges in human resources and synchronous infrastructure, but the health sector itself needs to coordinate with communication agencies inside and outside the province to further disseminate propaganda information to people and make them understand and actively join hands in responding to those changes related to theh implementation of smart health related contents.