The Ministry of Health has identified the implementation of electronic medical records as a key and top priority task, with heads of agencies and units taking full responsibility for this work... Hospitals and institutes with beds nationwide must complete this by September 2025.

VietnamPlus E-newspaper reporter interviewed Dr. Ha Anh Duc - Director of the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment Management (Ministry of Health) about promoting the implementation of electronic medical records, data connection towards building a smart hospital model.

Industry-wide data connectivity

- Mr. Director, could you please tell us how the Ministry of Health is implementing solutions to complete electronic medical records?

Dr. Ha Anh Duc: On March 14, the Prime Minister issued Directive No. 07/CT-TTg on promoting the implementation of the project to develop applications of population data, identification and electronic authentication to serve national digital transformation in the period of 2022-2025, with a vision to 2030 in ministries, branches and localities in 2025 and the following years.

In mid-March 2025, the Minister of Health also issued a document on promoting digital transformation and implementing Project 06 in agencies and units in the health sector, requiring leaders to set an example and pioneer in awareness, innovation in thinking and methodology on digital transformation.

Regarding the implementation of electronic medical records, the leaders of the Ministry and units under the Ministry of Health are very determined to implement the Government's policy. In particular, the Department of Science and Technology Training, the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment Management and the National Health Information Center are 3 units coordinating with each other to organize the implementation of this task.

More than a week ago, the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment Management advised the leaders of the Ministry of Health to sign documents on the list of inter-clinical tests with identification codes for each type of test, and this list reaches the standard of about 90% compared to existing international lists.

This is the first opportunity to ensure data connectivity nationwide. Because when this list is available, all medical facilities applying electronic medical records can be linked together.

Next is the standardization of the paraclinical list. Currently, the list of paraclinical services has hundreds, thousands of different lists. We at the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment are also very determined to ensure that by the end of May, we will submit this list for promulgation and gradually ensure the roadmap for implementing the electronic medical record project is feasible in September.

- How will the Ministry of Health implement the electronic medical records, sir?

Dr. Ha Anh Duc: The implementation of electronic medical records will be carried out simultaneously by the Ministry of Health at specialized and special-class hospitals, based on a unified guideline framework for hospitals. Secondly, it must be applied to all specialties, from small specialties to special-class hospitals. Each hospital will implement according to actual conditions, aiming at the goal of connecting data across the industry.

In addition, to connect data, the role of the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment Management is to build clinical, paraclinical and related categories in medical records and for electronic medical records, there must be an open source code so that hospitals can add to it.

Regarding the standard framework of electronic medical records, there are currently 141 hospitals applying electronic medical records that have a framework and if it is necessary to standardize, the hospitals already have one. Hospitals can apply the framework according to their capabilities.

Electronic medical record management software of hospitals can be used from many different suppliers, but when changing the management software, it does not affect the data connection between hospitals. These are the principles that we advise the Ministry's leaders in implementing work related to the implementation of electronic medical records.

The Ministry of Health is guiding localities and hospitals in the implementation to ensure progress. Currently, the largest and most complete electronic medical record model is that of the University of Medicine and Pharmacy Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, and this is also the hospital we use as a standard to be able to apply as a model to other hospitals.

Nationwide, we have 3,000 laboratories, but currently only about 10% have been standardized. Therefore, the task of the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment in the coming time is to accelerate the standardization of laboratories so that the test results between hospitals can be recognized.

Share common tests

- From the reality of medical examination and treatment at hospitals that are implementing electronic medical records, can you tell us what benefits electronic medical records bring?

Dr. Ha Anh Duc: Reality shows that implementing electronic medical records will bring about effectiveness from many perspectives.

Firstly, it is financially effective, this will be a beneficial policy, saving a lot of costs. When using electronic medical records, each database will be saved according to the life cycle of each patient, we do not have to print it many times.

Second, when we deploy data connectivity between hospitals, tests can be shared, so when patients come to the hospital, not every test the doctor prescribes needs to be redone.

Third, regarding the patient's X-ray data at the district-level medical facility, if it meets the standards, it can be reused when it reaches the central level, and the patient does not have to spend millions to tens of millions of dong for re-scans when going to a higher level. These are the financial benefits that electronic medical records bring.

In terms of expertise, when doctors read the electronic medical record, they can review all the history and illnesses of a patient, helping to personalize treatment and improve the quality of diagnosis and treatment. Instead of having to ask the patient about their treatment history every time they visit the doctor, with the electronic medical record, doctors can open the patient's code and see all the patient's medical history, such as what medications they have taken and how they have been diagnosed, and the length of time they have been in the hospital.

In particular, this is also an important premise for applying artificial intelligence (AI), forming a large database (Big Data), serving more effectively in hospital treatment and management.

Thank you very much, Director! ./.

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/benh-an-dien-tu-cu-hich-chuyen-doi-so-trong-toan-nganh-y-te-post1034482.vnp