Luong Ngoc Khue, Director of the Health Ministry's Department for Medical Examination and Treatment Management, introduces the centre's operations (Photo: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) – The Vietnam Telemedicine Centre for COVID-19 OutbreakControl made debut at a ceremony in Hanoi on March 5 in the context that thecoronavirus disease (COVID-19) is causing grave concern around the world.
The centre is tasked with managing and operating resourcesand professional activities to support health clinics in receiving,quarantining, diagnosing and treating COVID-19 patients directly or online.
Speaking at the ceremony, Deputy Health Minister NguyenThanh Long said that Vietnam is well controlling the COVID-19, with nofatalities and no infected health workers recorded so far.
However, it is necessary to anticipate possible situations of a large-scale outbreak with many serious cases, Long stated, adding that thebirth of the centre aims to provide professional support for lower-levelhospitals and health clinics, especially in far-flung areas.
Through the support of information technology, experts anddoctors at the central level can see patients as well as medical parameters andconditions of patients and their health developments from respiration and electrocardiogramso that they can make recommendations on mechanical ventilation and infusionfor lower-level colleagues.
One of the problems of the disease is that the longer oftime the caregiver comes into contact with the patient, the higher the infection rate is.Therefore, the centre is expected to help reduce the contact between healthworkers and patients, Long stated.
Director of the Health Ministry’s Department for MedicalExamination and Treatment Luong Ngoc Khue said that the application ofinformation technology in telemedicine will help improve the medical system’scapacity of dealing with the disease.
In case a health clinic records a COVID-19 patient, thetelemedicine centre will provide professional support for the clinic to avoidthe unnecessary transfer of the patient to the upper-level hospital, Khueadded.
The telemedicine centre is able to connect with 23 key diseaseprevention places and over 1,400 hospitals across Vietnam. It uses various smart medical solutions, including teleconferencing, electronic medicalrecords, and the cloud-based Picture Archiving and Communication System (CloudPACS).
On this occasion, the Department for Medical Examination andTreatment released a set of documents to serve COVID-19 diagnosis and treatment./.
