Digitizing medical data to provide a bridge to healthcare for millions of patients

Innovations in digital transformation and research and development in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors show that patients and healthcare providers will receive more opportunities from digitalization and accelerate access to new medicines.

Speakers at the seminar - Photo: THUY ANH

This was demonstrated at the forum "Innovation and digital transformation to promote comprehensive and sustainable healthcare in Vietnam in the new era", co-organized by Pharma Group and FPT today, June 6, in Hanoi.

Chronically ill people will have a bridge to health care

76 years old and suffering from high blood pressure, Mr. Hung, a patient who attended the forum, said he was confused and worried in the first days of being diagnosed with the disease. The numbers of diastolic and systolic blood pressure, and the scientific terminology made him confused, worried that the disease was serious and the treatment would be slow to be effective.

"What Mr. Hung shared are real situations that happen every day, every minute at our Long Chau pharmacy system. Patients come to Long Chau every day, sometimes initially just to buy a small bottle of eye drops. During the interaction with the pharmacist at the pharmacy, the health signs reported by the patient and the pharmacist's guidance and connection can detect many pathological situations that the patient has not yet discovered.

"The connection and intimacy between patients and pharmacists is the first point of contact regarding health," said Ms. Nguyen Do Quyen, Deputy General Director of FPT Retail and CEO of FPT Long Chau, at the forum.

And from this "touch point", Long Chau has a new initiative to "rice-ize" medical knowledge. Currently, Long Chau has 18,000 pharmacists working across Vietnam, well-trained, with a technological foundation, but when transferring professional knowledge to patients, it must be easy to understand and absorb so that patients can grasp it.

From this daily information between pharmacists and patients, Long Chau currently has a database of 28.5 million customers who have purchased medicine, many of whom return every month, and from there Long Chau can "understand" the patients, what diseases they have, what medicine they buy, who sells it, how to advise on using the medicine...

And all medical information is confidential, all patient data like this is confidential.

Sharing this opinion with Ms. Quyen, the representative of Phu Tho province at the forum said that 100% of commune health stations in Phu Tho have doctors, and doctors have also been trained to detect and diagnose cases of high blood pressure, diabetes...

"But if we only focus on detecting patients and handling and treating them, we are still solving the problem at the surface. The strategy of universal health care is shifting to proactive health care. Thanks to digital data and electronic health records, every person can be cared for from birth to adulthood and old age. Everyone has knowledge about early and remote disease prevention," he said.

The pharmaceutical industry is growing strongly, but the goal is for Vietnamese people to have proactive health care and access to new drugs sooner.

Innovation in medicine and how to get new drugs to people sooner?

FPT Board Chairman Truong Gia Binh kept the audience silent during his speech, because the issues he raised were very important and very new.

"Our current goal is not to live but to live healthily. To achieve this goal, there are still some obstacles such as access to new drugs. In the past 10 years, the world has had 560 new drugs developed, but we have only had access to 42 drugs, equivalent to 9%, while Japan has more than 50%. How can we change the number from 9% to more than 50%? How can we have good drugs when sick, and access new drugs as quickly as in Singapore and Japan?" - Mr. Binh asked.

In addition, facing the problem of counterfeit drugs that has been exposed a lot recently, Mr. Binh said that it is a pain but hopes it will not happen again. "It is time for us to have big dreams, big dreams, the pharmaceutical industry is an industry that needs creativity, we have a big dream of cooperating with the world's leading pharmaceutical companies to produce drugs in Vietnam", Mr. Binh said.

Attending the forum, Deputy Prime Minister Le Thanh Long also shared that we are changing our thinking from health check-ups to health care. Recent resolutions such as 57, 59, 66, 68 and the upcoming resolution specifically on health will create a breakthrough in health care.

The Deputy Prime Minister also proposed deploying electronic health records faster, using artificial intelligence and AI in providing medical services, improving scientific research capacity, especially in developing new drugs and applying advanced medical techniques.

Need 3 breakthroughs: mechanism, innovation and public-private partnership

The forum "Innovation and digital transformation to promote comprehensive and sustainable healthcare, meeting Vietnam's development requirements in the new era" co-organized by Pharma Group and FPT is a multi-dimensional dialogue forum between policy dialoguers, management agencies, domestic and foreign experts, pharmaceutical and technology enterprises, medical examination and treatment facilities... to find solutions for people's healthcare.

According to Mr. Truong Gia Binh, Head of the Private Economic Development Research Board, Chairman of the Board of Directors of FPT Corporation, to realize the aspiration of people's health care in the new era, three breakthroughs are needed in healthcare: mechanism, innovation and public-private partnership.

Regarding mechanisms, we must abandon the mindset of banning if we can't manage it, and switch to considering mechanisms as national competitive strength.

In terms of innovation, Vietnam can become a center for clinical trials and production of new AI-based drugs.

Regarding public-private cooperation, it is necessary to link hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, doctors, and pharmacists on a common data platform, because investing in health is investing in the future.

Mr. Darrell Oh, chairman of Pharma Group, said that investing in healthcare is investing in people, the country's most valuable resource. "We represent the pharmaceutical industry and are committed to accompanying Vietnam," said Mr. Oh.

RED RIVER

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/so-hoa-du-lieu-y-khoa-de-hang-trieu-nguoi-benh-co-cau-noi-cham-soc-suc-khoe-20250606190642984.htm