Using Emerging Telehealth Technology as a Future Model in Vietnam During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Practical Experience From Phutho General Hospital

Telehealth has emerged as a model of modern technology for health care services in Vietnam during the COVID-19 pandemic. To actively prevent the outbreak of COVID-19 by using a national digital transformation program, the Vietnamese Ministry of Health launched project 2628/Quyet dinh-Bo y te, which approved a scheme for remote medical examinations and treatments for 2020 to 2025. The project aims to connect 1000 hospitals to strengthen the quality of medical services by using the expertise of central hospitals to support rural areas via provincial hospitals. Phutho General Hospital (PGH) is one of leading provincial hospitals that participated in and applied the early telehealth systems in Vietnam. By using telehealth systems, PGH can offer valuable support to doctors’ activities by streamlining and facilitating their work. Telehealth was demonstrated to be feasible, acceptable, and effective at PGH in Vietnam, and it resulted in considerable improvements in health care outcomes. The COVID-19 pandemic has facilitated the acceleration and enhancement of telehealth in Vietnam. The success of telehealth in Phutho may be a useful reference for other parts of the world. However, this telehealth system focuses on the connectivity among doctors rather than the connectivity between doctors and patients, which is an area that needs further assessment.