Hanoi (VNA) – The development of smart hospitals and pioneering leadership meets current development requirements while reflecting future trends, Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan has stressed, noting that Vietnam’s healthcare sector is gradually building digital infrastructure of the national healthcare system.
Addressing the 2026 annual conference of the northern provinces’ hospital directors club held in Lao Cai province on May 22–23, Lan said the infrastructure is being built through the deployment of electronic medical records, electronic prescriptions, electronic health records and interconnected examination and treatment data.
This will provide an important foundation for smart preventive health care, lifelong health management and personalised treatment in the future, she noted.
According to the minister, competition among healthcare systems is no longer limited to hospital size or the number of advanced medical techniques, but is increasingly focused on governance capacity, data utilisation, innovation and the quality of patient experiences.
Against the backdrop of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing and other digital technologies are fundamentally transforming healthcare governance and service delivery worldwide, she said, adding that Vietnam, therefore, must pursue stronger, deeper and more substantive reforms to meet growing public expectations.
The minister noted that the Party and State have issued major strategic policies critical to the sector’s development, including Resolution No. 57-NQ/TW on breakthroughs in science – technology development, innovation and national digital transformation, and Resolution No. 72-NQ/TW on enhancing the protection, care and improvement of public health.
The Ministry of Health is building 14 specialised databases that are accurate, complete, clean, up-to-date, unified and shared while promoting substantive, effective, and people-centred electronic medical records and electronic health records. Administrative reforms have also been accelerated, reducing the number of procedures on medical examination and treatment from 106 to 39.
The minister stressed that a smart hospital is not simply one equipped with numerous software systems or modern devices. At its core, it represents a new governance model in which data becomes a strategic asset and management and professional decisions are supported by technology and scientific evidence.
According to the minister, a smart hospital must help reduce waiting times, administrative procedures and professional errors, optimise resources and improve treatment quality. More importantly, it should give health workers more time to focus on patients instead of being overwhelmed by administrative processes.
However, technology alone cannot determine the success of this transformation, she said, stressing that the decisive factor is human, particularly the role of leaders at healthcare facilities.
Lan called on leaders of healthcare establishments to possess not only strong professional expertise but also a modern governance mindset, data management capabilities, the ability to lead transformation and the capacity to adapt quickly to technological changes.
Assoc. Prof. Dao Xuan Co, Director of Bach Mai Hospital, who is also head of the northern provinces’ hospital directors club, said technologies such as AI, big data, electronic medical records, robotic surgery, precision medicine, gene therapy, stem cells, multi-organ transplantation, 3D printing and digital hospital governance are no longer distant prospects but have already entered hospitals and shaped medical and governance decisions.
Vietnamese hospitals need a new mindset; they cannot serve patients in the digital era through slow, fragmented and poorly connected procedures, he emphasised.
The conference sought to promote a systemic development vision centred on patients, with healthcare facilities as the foundation and governance capacity and professional quality as key drivers of sustainable development, Co said.
The event featured a scientific conference with plenary sessions and 12 symposiums focusing on strategic areas and emerging trends in modern medicine. These include developing and operating smart hospitals, AI in hospital governance, diagnosis and treatment, digital transformation in treatment, quality management, inter-hospital emergency care, 3D technology, robotic surgery, organ transplants, gene therapy, stem cells, and precision medicine.
The conference also included free medical examinations, medicines and gifts presented to more than 800 disadvantaged people, and a healthcare technology exhibition./.
