MEDLATEC Healthcare System joins hands to improve the quality of health care for people in the Central Coast region

Mr. Nguyen Duc Hung Son – Director
Quang Nam Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital opening speech "HHospital scientific conference
Obstetrics and Pediatrics in Quang Nam province"

The scientific conference of Quang Nam Provincial Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital had the participation of a large number of medical staff at Quang Nam Provincial Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital and hundreds of doctors and nurses from hospitals in the Central Coast region.

NIPT – Non-invasive prenatal screening “gold” test

According to statistics from the Ministry of Health, each year in Vietnam there are more than 41.000 children with birth defects, equivalent to one in every 33 children. Children with deformities have unpredictable consequences on their physical and intellectual development and become a burden to their families and society as well as affecting the quality of the population.

Within the framework of the conference, the report "Prenatal and neonatal screening and diagnosis", by Associate Professor, Dr. Hoang Thi Ngoc Lan - Genetics Expert, MEDLATEC Healthcare System, former Deputy Director of the Diagnostic Center Antenatal (Central Obstetrics Hospital), Senior Lecturer, Department of Biomedicine - Genetics (Hanoi Medical University) presented, attracting the attention of many colleagues.

Associate Professor, Dr. Hoang Thi Ngoc Lan - Genetics Expert, MEDLATEC Healthcare System reported at the Scientific Conference of Quang Nam Provincial Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital

Experts said: Among the methods of screening for congenital abnormalities in the fetus, the NIPT test is the non-invasive screening test with the most advantages.

This test is based on analyzing free DNA fragments (cfDNA) of the fetus moving freely in the pregnant mother's blood to detect abnormalities in the number of chromosomes that cause birth defects in the fetus.

By performing the NIPT test, pregnant mothers can feel secure with outstanding advantages such as: Performing early from the 9th ÷ 10th week of pregnancy; Safe, non-invasive because it is performed using maternal blood to isolate fetal cfDNA; Has high sensitivity and specificity, minimizing false positive and false negative rates.

However, the results of screening do not provide definitive diagnoses but only indicate whether the screened subject belongs to the low/high risk group. When the screened subject belongs to the high-risk group, consultation is needed to diagnose and determine those abnormalities.

The Ministry of Health recommends: All pregnant women from the 10th week can have the NIPT test performed to screen for fetal malformations, especially for pregnant women with high risk factors such as mothers with miscarriages. , multiple previous stillbirths with unknown cause, pregnant mothers with ultrasound results, or Double test/ Triple test results suspecting the fetus has birth defects, pregnant mothers over 35 years old... 

Pathology - "Gold standard" for diagnosing and treating cervical cancer

According to GLOBOCAN 2022 statistics: Every year our country has 4.612 new cases and 2.571 deaths. Without further intervention, the number of new cases will double (8562) by 2049.

Next, at the conference, Dr. Pham Hoang Ngoc Hoa - Director of Pathology Center, MEDLATEC Healthcare System presented a report: "Cervical cancer: urgency and solutions to improve quality." Pathological diagnosis".

 Dr. Pham Hoang Ngoc Hoa - Director of Pathology Center, MEDLATEC Medical System reported at the conference

Cervical cancer screening currently has two main methods: screening with traditional pap cells and fluid-dipped pap. In particular, experts especially emphasized the role of pathology - the "golden" test in screening, diagnosing, and treating cervical cancer with accurate and reliable results.

However, experts note: “The accuracy of each diagnostic method depends greatly on the expertise and experience of the pathologist when reading the specimen. In fact, pathology laboratories across the country still lack supervision and professional quality assurance. This leads to inconsistency in diagnostic quality, increasing the risk of missing serious pathological cases, as well as providing no basis for obstetricians and gynecologists to trust the surgical results. sick".

As the first medical unit in the country to manage test quality according to CAP standards (USA), Dr. Pham Hoang Ngoc Hoa shares his experience with colleagues and the "principles" that need to be strictly followed. to ensure pathology results in general, as well as for cervical cancer in particular, are accurate, reliable and not missed.

According to experts, it is a condition of continuous training of medical staff on strict quality control procedures and improvement evaluation. At the same time, improve diagnostic quality with a strict CAP quality management program including training activities, continuous diagnostic quality monitoring, and improving diagnoses through peer comparison with diagnoses of other departments. Other tests around the world for cervical cancer.

Personalization – a giant step forward in pathology

Following the success of the "Scientific Conference of Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital of Quang Nam Province" held on July 26, MEDLATEC continued to participate in the conference in Quang Ngai held on July 7 to share knowledge, experience about “Prenatal and neonatal screening and diagnosis”, reported by Associate Professor, Dr. Hoang Thi Ngoc Lan - Genetics Expert, MEDLATEC Healthcare System.

In particular, the topic is new “Application of pathology in the era of personalized medicine”, reported by Dr. Pham Hoang Ngoc Hoa - Director of Pathology Center, MEDLATEC Healthcare System has brought to colleagues comprehensive information about the value of pathology with 6 "golden" values. after:

• Is the gold standard for diagnosing diseases/damages;
• Is legal evidence for both tumor and non-tumor lesions;
• Is a microscopic diagnosis to compare the consistency with the clinical diagnosis;
• Diagnosis orientation in some non-tumor diseases (inflammation, tuberculosis, infection...);
• Orients treatment, monitoring, prognosis and is decisive for targeted treatment of some oncological diseases.

Experts said: All organs with physical damage (changes in cells and tissues) need pathology to determine the nature of the damage and have medical evidence.

 Two experts took souvenir photos with doctors and nurses participating in the "Scientific Conference of Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital of Quang Nam Province"

As the central content of the report, experts emphasize the role of histopathology and immunohistochemistry - the current trend of individualization.

Experts said: Histopathological diagnosis is a diagnosis based on examining body tissue samples through magnified images of specimens on a microscope; Evaluate detailed cell characteristics and tissue structure; Assess the level of invasion and stage the disease. The advantage of the test is that it is more accurate than cytology, serving targeted treatment by immunohistochemistry and molecular biology.

Hopefully the knowledge and experience shared by experts at the conference will help colleagues at the Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital of Quang Nam and Quang Ngai provinces and doctors in the Central Coast region to apply effectively in clinical practice. ready to further improve the effectiveness of diagnosis, prognosis and treatment for patients, especially dangerous diseases such as cancer that are no longer a death sentence.