Hanoi (VNA) – Grassroots telemedicine solutionusing 4.0 technology has helped address geographical distance, enabling communehealth staff in mountainous areas to seek consultation from their colleagues atthe district and higher levels.

This enhances people’s access to qualityhealth diagnosis and treatment right at the commune health station and reducingthe overloading at district and higher-level health facilities, said participants at a workshop on June 23 on the key results of Phase 2 of thegrassroots telemedicine project, jointly implemented by the United NationsDevelopment (UNDP) and the Electronic Health Administration (EHA) under theMinistry of Health in collaboration with the Departments of Health of Ha Giang,Bac Kan, and Lang Son provinces.

So far, 483 grassroots medical facilities, equivalent to 89.5%,in the three localities have been trained and connected to provide telemedicinefor people. 

Speaking at the workshop named “Grassroots Telemedicine –Phase 2 Results and Future Planning”, EHA Deputy Director General NguyenTruong Nam said theimplementation of grassroots telemedicine has had "very good initial results".

Since December 2020, the UNDP has cooperated with the EHA and thethree provinces to develop and pilot a digital solution called “Doctor forEveryone”, including a secure video conferencing platform for multi-point callsto support professional consultations and regular meetings between districthealth centers, district general hospitals and commune health stations. Thishelps improve the quality of grassroots health service and complements theexisting telehealth programme connecting national hospitals with provincial andsome district hospitals.

UNDP Deputy Resident Representative Patrick Haverman thankedthe Departments of Health of Ha Giang, Bac Kan and Lang Son provinces for theirstrong commitment and close collaboration with the UNDP and the EHA in implementing the“Doctor for Everyone” solution in all districts and communes of the threeprovinces.

Building on this initial success, UNDP has mobilisedadditional financial resources through two further projects to support theministry and provinces to scale up the grassroots telemedicine solution, thusfurther supporting the digital transformation in the health sector in theCOVID-19 and Industrial Revolution 4.0 context. These include the project‘COVID-19 Response for Strengthening Vaccine Access and Health SystemCapacity’, supported by the Government of Japan from March 2022 to March 2023,and the Korea – Vietnam Peace Village project supported by Government of theRepublic of Korea from 2022 to 2026.

“Through these projects, UNDP in close collaboration with theMinistry of Health will support to replicate the 'Doctor for everyone' application in Thua Thien – Hue, Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh, Ca Mau and Dak Lakprovinces, with the aim to develop a nationwide grassroots telemedicine systemto leave no one behind,” said Haverman.

He affirmed UNDP’s readiness todeepen its strategic partnership and cooperation with the Ministry of Health,contributing to the development of the health sector in Vietnam, with aparticular focus on the healthcare system at the grassroots level./.