Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Vietnam’s health care sector is stepping up the use ofartificial intelligence (AI) to improve service quality.

Updateson the country's AI research,development and use were introduced at a seminar held last week, attendedby medical and tech experts.

Theonline seminar is part of AI4VN Program organised by the Ministry of Scienceand Technology, the Ministry of Planning and Investment, HCM City People’sCommittee, online newspaper VnExpress,and Sun Bright Art Creative and Event JSC, in co-operation with theAus4Innovation programme, Australian Embassy in Vietnam, and Hanoi Universityof Science and Technology.

DeputyMinister of Science and Technology Bui The Duy said the development of AI,digital technology and big data created “miracles” in various fields.

“Inthe health care sector, human’s knowledge and the accumulated knowledge andexperiences of doctors and health professionals are saved thanks to big data.With algorithms and computing technologies, the data is processed to becometools assisting doctors and health care workers to provide better healthservices,” Duy said. 

Hesaid that Vietnam expected high-tech developers to become more interested inthe medical sector and health professionals to become more engaged in usingdigital technologies and big data in their work.

“Theapplication of AI, digital technologies and digital transformation is verymeaningful to disease prevention, control and treatment, particularly whenCOVID-19 is still going on, at least by year-end,” Duy said.

DavidHansen, CEO of the Australian e-Health Research Centre, Australia’s first andlargest e-research hub, said the hub hadbeen providing an evidence base for the digital transformation of health care.

AIand digital technology had helped increase health care service quality, hesaid, giving examples like machine learning on retinal images to enabletelehealth screening for eye diseases, for examples, glaucoma and diabeticretinopathy.

Machinelearning can be used to understand the movement patterns of aged Australiansliving alone, alerting carers if functional independence declines over time, hesaid.

AssociateProfessor Nguyen Viet Nhung, Director of the National Lung Hospital and Chairmanof the Vietnam Lung Association, said he had been spending years studying theuse of AI to diagnose tuberculosis and lung disease.

Thescience ministry has tasked the hospital with utilising technology to screenand detect tuberculosis patients with radiography, Nhung said.

Vietnamaimed to have zero cases of tuberculosis by 2030 and key to achieving thatgoal was improving its ability to detect the disease early and delivertreatment timely, Nhung said, adding that modern technologies could help reduce70 percent of TB cases within four years.

AIwould help screen with X-rays, predict spatial epidemiology, support patientcompliance with treatment, and support the management of drug sideeffects, Nhung said, adding that the final goal is to detect TB cases early andtreat them completely.

AIwould further enhance doctors’ diagnosis ability, he said.

"AIwould help relieve the burden on humans while increasing accuracy and ensuringno case slips by while using lung radiography," he said.

Accordingto Tran Thi Mai Oanh, Director of the Health Strategy and Policy Instituteunder the Ministry of Health, in Vietnam, AI is applied in four key fields– diagnosis, treatment, management of health history data and training.

Vingroup’sBig Data Institute has been developing an AI application to diagnose lungdiseases with chest X-ray images and breast cancer with breast X-ray images.The application is being trialled at Military Hospital 108, the MedicalUniversity’s Hospital and Vinmec.

Oanhsaid AI could be applied widely, especially to help people record theirown health conditions, reminding people to take medicine and exercise, andprovide early warnings to detect diseases like cardiovascular issues or cancer.

“Whenit comes to AI application in the health care sector, its code of ethics isneeded regarding the protection of privacy and personal information like theirhealth conditions,” Oanh said.

"Anotherissue is to ensure safety for patients if robots are used to deliver servicesas it's possible for programmed robots to have errors," Oanh said, addingthat in such cases, legal regulations on compensation needed to be clarified.

“Howmuch AI applications can be used to deliver treatment services is also a keyissue that decides the treatment’s effectiveness and responsibility,” Oanh said.

Besidesan improved legal framework, qualified input data would be needed to ensurereliable and exact diagnosis and treatment, she said.

Profand Dr Nguyen Thanh Thuy, deputy chief of the national programmesupporting the research, development and application of technologies inthe Fourth Industrial Revolution, said that three years ago, the Ministry ofScience and Technology launched a master plan on AI development as well asstudies on AI use in the health care sector.

“Vietnamnow has advantages to apply AI in health care including high demand, availableinput health data and human resources with people who are committed anddetermined to try,” Thuy said./.