Table 3.
The utilization (or lack thereof) of information technology in Vietnam’s healthcare sector, categorized in three groups: administrative, clinical, and national.
| Administrative | Progress | Clinical | Progress | National | Progress |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hospital management | 54% of hospitals are using some software for internal management. | Diagnosis and treatment database | Under construction but remains not unified; hospitals use different software. | National standardized database | Not yet built. |
| Human resources management | Hospital software is said to be HR-focused. | Medical devices database | Under construction but not unified. | Departmental or provincial health databases | Under construction but not unified. |
| Database to track stakeholders in health management | Not yet built. | Drugs database/Prescription monitoring system | Under construction but largely mismatched. | Database about national target programs, preventive health, the private sector | Under construction but severely lacking. |
| Medical data collection | Manual collection, sporadic, lack of integration across establishments, which created duplication. | Electronic medical record (EMR) database | Under construction but needs to be standardized and integrated into the national system. | Health information system 2015–2020 | Under construction but needs to be standardized. |
| Medical costs database | Not yet built. | Mortality and infection reports | Requested to be formulated a long time ago but lacking accurate data. | System to monitor implement of legal health documents | Not yet built. |
| Medical information reporting | There is no requirement for replacing paper reports with digital reports. | Database for diseases control | Not yet built. | Databases linking private and public health resources, and tracking patient responses | Not yet built. |
| Picture archiving and communication system (PACS) | Some medical establishments have used PACS but there is no official guideline for this yet. | Database to monitor adverse drug reaction (ADR) | Most hospitals have been collecting this information, but no official reports have been made. | Database about all licensed doctors | Not yet built. |