Applying scientific research, improve the quality of medical examination and treatment

In recent years, the province’s health sector has focused on implementing extensive scientific and technical research and application. The research and application results have made an important contribution to improving the quality of disease prevention and control, protecting and caring for people’s health in the area.

Doctor of Hanoi Medical University (far right) instructs Lang Son General Hospital staff to use a color fundus camera

The Department of Health has 23 affiliated units including: 4 provincial hospitals; 5 units doing preventive work, medical examination and forensics; Sub-Department of Population and Family Planning, Sub-Department of Food Hygiene and Safety; Medical College and 11 district and city medical centers.

Researching regularly and extensively

Mr. Phan Lac Hoai Thanh, Deputy Director of the Department of Health affirmed: The province’s health sector always identifies the application of scientific and technical advances and digital transformation in medical examination and treatment, care, protection and improvement of people’s health as one of the key tasks. Therefore, in recent years, the sector has paid attention to implementing many measures to promote scientific research activities, in order to improve the professional quality, capacity and scientific thinking of medical staff and staff.

Accordingly, the Department of Health has issued regulations on the management of scientific initiatives and topics in the industry, regularly urging units to carry out scientific research in the correct order and schedule. Circulars, plans, intellectual property work, initiative work, technical innovation competitions… are promptly deployed to affiliated units. At the same time, leaders of medical facilities have encouraged individuals, faculties and divisions to research topics and initiatives that have been allocated funds for implementation and given priority in considering criteria for annual emulation.

Doctors at the Provincial General Hospital perform percutaneous biliary stone lithotripsy surgery using laser

100% of affiliated units have actively responded and implemented extensively, creating conditions for medical staff and doctors to participate in scientific research. Doctor Tran Hong Duyen, Deputy Director of Loc Binh Medical Center said: Every year, the center has proactively implemented extensively to each faculty and division, selecting priority areas to register to implement topics and initiatives. Based on the results of the initiative projects, the unit has implemented applications in professional activities, regularly maintaining scientific activities associated with management and professional activities in each department and division. Thanks to that, on average each year, the unit has about 5 scientific research topics, in 2023 there has been 6 research topics, many of which are highly applicable in medical examination and treatment for people in the area such as  Learning about people’s awareness of Thalassimia disease (congenital hemolytic anemia) prevention and hospital antibiotic management; Management and treatment of bone and joint diseases at Loc Binh Medical Center…

Together with Loc Binh Medical Center, scientific research is implemented synchronously and extensively at all medical facilities in the province. On average, each year, the provincial health sector has over 130 grassroots-level projects and initiatives and 1 to 3 provincial-level projects. The number of scientific research topics and scientific research projects is increasing. If in 2017, the provincial health sector accepted over 70 innovative topics, then in 2020, the number of approved innovative topics was 81, and by 2023 this number were 146.  The content of scientific research projects and projects all address the requirements from the actual medical examination and treatment of each medical facility, implemented extensively and diversely in all fields such as Applying techniques combined with ventricular drainage; management and treatment of bone and joint diseases; Lung tumor biopsy technique under the guidance of computed tomography; control prescription/sale of prescription drugs; Building a medicinal plant gene conservation area and planning for medicinal plant development…

Useful topic, highly applicable

Along with the quantity, the quality of topics and initiatives is also increasing. The topics and initiatives selected for research and implementation all have the ability to be applied in practical prevention, medical examination, treatment, human resource management training… In 2023, all 146 initiative topics was applied in practice, a project recognized at the provincial level.

The topic “Research and application of percutaneous laser lithotripsy treatment techniques at Provincial General Hospital” is a typical example. In the past, patients with gallstones were often treated with the traditional method of open surgery to remove the gallbladder and open the common bile duct to remove stones to drain the bile duct. This method is often painful, leads to complications, leaves many sequelae, and has a high rate of recurrence and re-operation. When this topic was researched, the application overcame the disadvantages of previous treatment techniques with a high success rate, few complications, and helped patients recover quickly.

Doctor Tran Mau Viet, Deputy Director of the Provincial General Hospital – project leader shared: Percutaneous laser biliary lithotripsy allows access and dissolution of stones in all locations of the biliary tract, including stones in the smallest hepatic ducts that cannot be removed by open surgery. This is a minimally invasive method, the patient is almost painless, has few complications, and recovers quickly, thus shortening the hospital stay and reducing costs. Therefore, it is possible to treat elderly patients with underlying medical conditions. After more than 2 years of implementation, we have operated on nearly 300 gallstone patients. The results showed that 100% of patients with this disease who were indicated for surgery recovered their health well.

Along with Dr. Viet’s topic, there are many good topics that are effectively applied at medical examination and treatment facilities, such as “Research on genetic epidemiological characteristics of Thalassemia disease of Tay and Nung ethnic people in Lang Son province”, “Application of techniques combining ventricular drainage and use of the thrombolytic drug Alteplase in the treatment of acute ventricular dilation due to intraventricular bleeding at Provincial General Hospital”…

Thus, scientific research projects are increasing in both quantity and quality, contributing to effective application, improving the quality of medical examination and treatment activities at units, consolidating professional qualifications and promoting the capacity of medical staff. In 2023, the provincial health sector has implemented 123 new technical services, create favorable conditions for patients to access advanced, quality medical services, reduce costs, gradually improve the quality of care and improve the health of people in the area. Thanks to that, the number of medical examination and treatment is increasing, in 2023 the whole province has more than 1.4 million people examined and treated, an increase of 100,000 times compared to 2022…