Mr. Francis Nguyen Tuan Anh - Technology Expert
Information technology – “Connection line” promotes Digital Health towards absolute accuracy and outstanding efficiency
“Information technology – “Connection line” promotes Digital Health towards absolute accuracy and outstanding efficiency”
This is a judgement from information technology expert Nguyen Francis Tuan Anh (Frank Nguyen) when asked about the importance of information technology in the digital health transformation in Vietnam as well as in the world.
Mr. Frank Nguyen used to hold the position of Technology Development and Communication Director at Microsoft Vietnam and a senior expert in charge of software development partnership Microsoft Asia Pacific. He has more than 20 years of experience in software management and development in the US and Vietnam. With a passion for the medical field in 2016, he founded the Microsoft Health Innovation Lab (HIL) with the aim of connecting companies in the fields of biotechnology, medical devices and healthcare and diagnosis services to connect technology, training, investment support to meet and improve healthcare services in Vietnam.
On the occasion of Mr. Frank Nguyen’s official cooperation with VMED Group as a Technology and Solution Advisor, we conducted a quick interview with him.
– VMED Group: Hello Mr. Frank Nguyen. There are currently many comments on Healthcare 4.0 such as “Telemedicine will erase geographical distance in healthcare”,” “CLAS Healthcare Electronic Medical Record” will replace all the paper documents of patients” or “Artificial intelligence is the stethoscope of the 21st century” … could you give your assessment on the importance of IT in Health sector?
– Mr. Frank Nguyen: Currently, most hospitals in Vietnam are still using paper and film management systems. This fact causes waste of resources and also hinders the information storage and exploitation to improve the quality of medical examination and treatment services. The first step in process improvement is to “digitize the healthcare sector” and we cannot do it without IT application. However, to balance the two “economic” and “medical” factors, I choose “Make breakthrough but not Destroy”. Typically, the CLAS Healthcare Electronic Medical Record Project developed by VMED Group does not require hospitals to buy new software, but completely extracts data from old electronic medical records. I understand that: “Digital health is only really effective if you minimize software and process changes and optimize information storage and exploitation”. Only when medical data is thoroughly and accurately stored by software, we can move to the next steps: data analysis, connection and sharing. This is an inevitable trend of global health and Vietnam cannot stand outside this transformation cycle.
– VMED Group: So can you share the reason you chose to cooperate with VMED Group?
– Mr. Frank Nguyen: The medical problem is complicated, requiring professional and specialized knowledge. Therefore, to solve this problem, businesses need to understand and have medical experience from many angles, including: medical equipment, information technology, infrastructure, etc. IT application in Health means “smooth combination of software and hardware ” because that technology is created and developed based on the factors that can be easily and effectively used by both doctors and patients. VMED Group is an enterprise in a close relationship with the health sector and VMED Group has the potential to make a comprehensive long-term investment in the health sector. This is the advantage that makes me really convinced when deciding to join VMED Group.
– VMED Group: Could you share more about the plans implemented by you and VMED in the coming time to bring more optimal solutions and services to accompany the Ministry of Health?
– Mr. Frank Nguyen: My biggest desire as well as VMED Group’s is: To accompany the Ministry of Health in improvement of the quality of medical examination and treatment services. This is a long-term process and we took the first step to “digitize the health sector” with CLAS Healthcare Electronic Medical Records. In the next step, we provide the intensive remote treatment solutions for hospitals and medical facilities. With specific solutions such as Tele-EMS (out-of-hospital emergency), Tele-ECG (Remote ECG interpretation), Tele-ICU (connecting patient information between the command center at the upper level hospital and the units) and many connection solutions are being studied and developed. VMED Group and I are making a small contribution to improving the treatment efficiency for patients. The last step and the most important step is that we accompany the Ministry of Health to develop a platform for sharing and connecting national health data. When completing the above path, I do believe that Vietnam health sector is not only marked on the world map by talent and intelligence, but also recognized in modern technology and connection and sharing values./.
