Vietnam races to complete digital transformation in healthcare sector
The Ministry of Health is accelerating digital transformation to meet evolving demands amidst rapid sci-tech advancement, coupled with emerging public health challenges.
The healthcare sector is stepping up digital transformation to create favourable conditions for patients. (Photo: VietnamPlus)
Hanoi (VNA) – ꦜThe Ministry of Health is accelerating digital transformation to meet evolving demands amidst rapid sci-tech advancement, coupled with emerging public health challenges.
The Government has laid the legislative groundwork for this shift over the past years, with Resolution No. 17/NQ-CP, issued in March 2019, setting out core tasks for building an e-government between 2019 and 2020, with a vision extending to 2025. It placed citizens at the centre of governance and singled out healthcare as a priority field for digital transformation. The resolution paved the way for interconnected health information systems designed to make public services more transparent, efficient, and people-focused.
Under the decision on national digital transformation until 2025 with vision to 2030, the Prime Minister highlighted key missions for the healthcare sector, including expanding telemedicine, online medical consultations and remote diagnosis capabilities to reduce the burden on higher-level facilities while improving healthcare accessibility for residents in mountainous areas. Besides, the sector must focus on electronic health records standardisation to create a comprehensive personal healthcare database platform.
Deputy Minister of Health Tran Van Thuan underscored that the ministry has seen consolidating the grassroots healthcare system as the foundation and digital transformation as the lever for change.
There will no longer be a gap between advanced technology and grassroots medical stations, he said, adding AI is supporting imaging diagnostics while risk factors for cardiovascular disease, cancer, and chronic illnesses are digitised and tracked through electronic health records.
Vietnam is eyeing a provincial-level smart healthcare network, where each locality establishes its own digital health ecosystem with electronic records, telemedicine, early disease warning systems, and AI-powered diagnostics. This marks a shift from reactive healthcare to predictive healthcare, from manual administration to data-driven governance.
Director of the National Health Information Centre Do Truong Duy described electronic health records as a pillar in the sector’s digital transformation, helping improve examination quality, optimise management, archive, and information sharing, while ensuring accuracy and security of public health data.
Medical staff conduct blood testing. (Photo: VietnamPlus)
The e-records particularly enhance transparency in professional regulation compliance. These systems are developing into comprehensive databases for research and disease pattern evaluation, serving as foundations for procurement planning and pharmaceutical and medical supply bidding processes.
So far, 301 medical facilities nationwide have successfully implemented electronic medical records, which is modest compared to the Government’s targets. Primary obstacles include financial constraints, technological infrastructure limitations, human resources shortages, and inadequate coordination between sectors and administrative levels.
Under the Prime Minister’s Directive No. 07 in March 2025, all ministries and localities are requested to accelerate the national digital transformation agenda. The directive set a hard deadline for all hospitals nationwide to fully implement electronic medical records by September 30, 2025.
To remove barriers, the Ministry of Health issued a document, providing specific technical guidance for hospitals to carry out e-health records. The move aims to simplify procedures, standardise systems, and give hospitals both the legal and technical basis to execute digital reforms on schedule./.
Vietnam now boasts a nationwide healthcare network with 1,665 hospitals, 384 of which are non-public, supported by local commune- and ward-level stations. At the end of 2024, hospital bed capacity reached 34 per 10,000 people, slightly above the global average.
Vietnam is currently reshaping its grassroots healthcare system to better serve a rapidly ageing population, address changing disease burdens, and meet rising public expectations fuelled by economic growth.
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