Electronic Medical Records in Vietnam: The Journey to Digitize Healthcare

Digitizing Medical Records: The Foundation of Smart Healthcare

Electronic Medical Records (EMR) are the backbone of digital health transformation. In Vietnam, the Ministry of Health has set a target for 100% of central and provincial hospitals to implement EMR before 2028. To date, over 95% of public hospitals use management software, but only about 30% meet international EMR standards under HL7 FHIR criteria.

Outstanding Benefits of EMR

EMR reduces record search time by 60%, cuts prescription errors from illegible handwriting by 40%, and saves billions of VND in paper storage costs annually. More importantly, EMR enables data sharing between healthcare facilities, giving doctors a comprehensive view of patient health history when transferring or visiting multiple locations.

Implementation Barriers and Solutions

The biggest challenges are lack of unified data standards across software platforms, weak IT infrastructure at district and commune levels, and resistance to change among senior medical staff. Proposed solutions include building a national Health Information Exchange platform, digital skills training for 100% of healthcare workers, and adopting cloud-based models for grassroots facilities to reduce infrastructure investment costs.