Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Viet Tien delivers speech at a ceremony to launch a new infectious disease related support training initiative (Source: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) – The Health Ministry’s Medical
Services Administration (MSA) and the British Medical Journal (BMJ) on
September 27 launched the clinical decision support training initiative to
medical services in Vietnam with the aim to improve the detection, diagnosis
and control of infectious diseases.
The launch was conducted within the framework of a workshop
to transfer BMJ’s professional guidance to Vietnam’s medical check-up and
treatment system.
Attending the workshop were Deputy Health Minister Nguyen
Viet Tien, UK Ambassador to Vietnam Giles Lever, representatives from the BMJ
and the US’s Defence Threat Reduction Agency, and leaders and doctors of
hospitals in Hanoi.
Speaking at the event, Deputy Health Minister Tien said
improvement of medical services and overcrowding at hospitals was one of the
major priorities of the health sector in the coming years.
The cooperation between MSA and BMJ will help the health
sector meet the increasing demand of health care and treatment in Vietnam, he
added.
“Today’s clinicians deal with a wealth of constantly
changing information and it is increasingly difficult to keep the knowledge and
practice current. We feel privileged to be using our international expertise to
deliver trusted, evidence-based knowledge to Vietnam health care
professionals,” Mitali Wroczynski, head of Strategic Partnerships at BMJ, said.
“We will not only help accelerate progress for a world safe
and secure from infectious disease threats but also establish a comprehensive
and sustainable training and clinical decision support programme that will
address broader health care priorities in Vietnam, and support continuing
medical education and professional development,” Wroczynski added.
The initiative provides health care professionals with
evidence-based online tools and resources, including BMJ Best Practice and BMJ
Learning, which together cover over 90 percent of the most commonly presented
conditions across primary and secondary care. Clinicians will receive online,
offline and mobile access to over 1,000 clinical decision support topics and
over 800 online learning modules. A significant proportion of this content will
be translated into Vietnamese.
The initiative will help address national notifiable
diseases, including Anthrax and Avian Influenza; diseases of significant
concern such as Brucellosis; and infectious diseases such as HIV, multi-drug
resistant TB and Malaria.
However, the comprehensive coverage provided by the
programme will play a dual role in supporting the top health care priorities of
Vietnam, including stroke, heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary
disorder, diabetes, hypertension and many other non-communicable diseases.
Vietnam currently has more than 1,300 hospitals and medical
facilities with 250,000 beds that serve 150 million visits of outpatients and
15 million inpatients yearly, according to the health ministry. -VNA