During the ‘Promoting the implementation of electronic health records’ Seminar that took place in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam last week, the Ministry of Health announced that Electronic Health Records (EHRs) will be deployed nationwide from July this year.
WHAT’S THE IMPACT
“The collection of health information will help the Vietnamese manage their health better. This will also raise their self-awareness of disease prevention and the potential risk of diseases affecting health and life,” emphasised Nguyen Truong Son, Deputy Minister of Health, Vietnam.
From the doctors’ and caregivers perspectives, the deployment of EHRs will be an important tool in the prevention and treatment of diseases for the community. The availability of EHRs will also prove invaluable in helping the decision-making processes of doctors, especially during emergency cases in which time is of the essence.
Currently, there are 24 provinces implementing EHRs in Vietnam, of which 6 are officially considered as the ‘piloting EHR provinces’. The 6 piloting provinces met in Hanoi on June 13-14 for a workshop to share their learning experiences and for further planning.
“The EHRs will be the basis of a national health data system as each citizen from birth to death will be granted a social insurance code. The construction of medical identifiers based on social insurance codes almost never misses anyone, except for citizens who are born but for some reason, have no birth certificates,” said Associate Prof. Dr. Tran Quy Tuong, Director of the Information Technology Department, Ministry of Health, Vietnam.
LONG TERM PLANS
“In order to achieve the goal of 90% of the population being managed for health by 2025, the Ministry of Health is urgently working towards the implementation of EHRs,” said Deputy Health Minister Nguyen. The Health Ministry has already approved the application of IT at commune and ward health stations in the period of 2018-2020.
The Ministry of Health has numerous policies based on the EHR and data and health information standards – more specific guidelines, especially those around interoperability, will be issued in the coming months.
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