Telehealth: People enjoy the best medical services

(LSO) – The Telehealth project is initially being implemented at medical centers in the province not only helping to strengthen the professional capacity of lower level hospitals, reducing the overloaded work for higher-level hospitals but also better meet the curative care tasks for sick people.

To implement the Telehealth for the period 2020 – 2025, Lang Son’s  Department of Health has issued a document to direct medical units in the area to review and register their needs to participate in the project. Thereby, there are 14 units (4 provincial hospitals, 10 district healthcare centers) being registered to participate and initially connected with central hospitals such as Bach Mai Hospital, Central Children’s Hospital, and K-hospital  to gradually improve the quality of healthcare services.

From July 2020 up to now, medical units in the province have participated in more than 20 sessions of the project to learn experiences, methods of treating specific cases, and consultation, treatment guide. trained by experts from central hospitals. At the same time, one consultation for 1 patient being treated at the local hospital was done with the support from experts of the project.

Officers, healthcare workers, nurses and doctors of the Provincial General Hospital perform remote consultation and consultation with Bach Mai Hospital, Hanoi

Provincial General Hospital is the first unit to carry out virtual medical services and has conducted consultations with leading experts of Bach Mai Hospital, Hanoi. Doctor Dang Huy Du, Deputy Director of Provincial General Hospital, said that on Octorber 9^th 2020, the hospital participated in virtual medical examination and consultation with Bach Mai Hospital (Hanoi) about the case of a female patient, 35 years old in Lang Son city. After listening to online medical reports, experts of Bach Mai Hospital diagnosed patients with encephalitis, meningitis, and hypertension. After finding the  causes of the patient’s disease, the suggested treatment for the patient was given in the online consultation. Currently, the patient is being treated at the Department of Rehabilitation, Provincial General Hospital, showing gradual recovery and being able to hold things by hands and move her legs.

Although the implementation of the project has not been long, the project have promptly solved the difficulties and problems faced by local hospitals during the examination and treatment. In particular, through this form, doctors can easily exchange knowledge and healthcare methods, thereby offering effective treatment plans, reducing travel costs and treating diseases at higher level hospitals.

Doctor Nguyen The Do, Director of Huu Lung Medical Center, said that the implementation of the project helped the unit to be connected with the Central Children’s Hospital, Central Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital to improve the quality of health care service at the unit. In the past, in order to be examined, diagnosed and treated by higher level doctors, patients had to be transferred to hospital with many arising problems such as travel expenses, caring and accommodation difficulties.  The development of the health sector allow patients  the communes to be treated by leading specialists.

The Telehealth System is developed by Military Industry – Telecommunication Corporation (Viettel) with the support of transmission, storage technologies and AI artificial intelligence system. In June 2020, Viettel Lang Son carried out the Telehealth system for hospitals and medical centers in the whole province. Mr. Tran Van Khue, Head of Customer Department, Enterprises, Viettel Lang Son said that by October 2020 they have basically deployed the system connection at 14 hospitals in the whole province. Currently, the quality of infrastructure and software has been upgraded, ensuring the connection between the base hospital and central hospitals. Viettel Lang Son has completed the construction for the deployment of Telehealth to connect with medical stations of communes, wards and towns in the province of Lang Son.

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Tung, Deputy Director of the Department of Health told that the Department is actively building a project for remote medical treatment in Lang Son province period 2021 – 2025 to submit to the Provincial People’s Committee for approval. After being approved, the project will mark a new step in the application of information technology to promote the strength of medical technology development for the provincial hospitals. This is also considered the first step in the application of high technology for remote diagnosis and medical treatment in hospitals, providing the best healthcare conditions for people.

Telehealth System is developed by Military Industry – Telecommunication Corporation (Viettel) with the support of transmission, storage technologies and AI artificial intelligence system. In June 2020, Viettel Lang Son deployed the Telehealth system for hospitals and medical centers in the province.