Vietnam has made great strides towards universal health coverage. The introduction of a digital health records system is an important next step to improve healthcare quality and reduce operational costs.
Vietnam's journey to UHC is impressive in improving health quality outcomes and reducing class disparities. Photo: Lam Nguyen
Ha Vu is a busy man. The 40-year-old street food seller, who lives with his family in Phu Tho, a province in northern Vietnam, runs a thriving business. He is also receiving treatment for chronic hepatitis B—a serious liver condition that increases the risk of liver failure and liver cancer—as well as gastritis and high cholesterol. Vu needs to take medication to treat the hepatitis B twice a day and at specific times to ensure it works effectively.
Once a month, he visits a local hospital for check-ups and to collect his medication. This routine has been a part of his life for more than a decade. Vu always carries a health insurance card to these appointments as he is among millions of Vietnamese receiving benefits from a generous government health insurance scheme.
Attending these medical appointments is relatively straightforward. The local hospital that Vu usually visits is small, and he does not have to wait long. But keeping track of his medical history has become increasingly challenging.
Each time he visits the doctor, he is assigned a different patient ID and given a new set of documents. When he collects his medication, the hospital prints out a stack of medical documents for him—most of which he manages to lose.
“I can’t recall how my illness has progressed over time,” Vu says, explaining that he knows which medications he needs to take and the days he needs to see the doctor, but he wishes he could systematically track his medical history.
What’s more, whenever Vu’s condition worsens, he must travel from his home to a hospital in Hanoi, a 2.5-hour bus ride away, for treatment. Every time he needs referral documents to transfer from the district hospital to a central one. He feels exhausted by the complex paperwork.
A useful solution for people like Vu is a resource that blends expert medical knowledge with the convenience of digital access. The good news is that electronic health records are being developed in Vietnam to meet this need.
Vietnam’s journey to universal health coverage
Vietnam’s journey to universal health coverage (UHC) is impressive, both in improving overall health outcomes and reducing class disparities.
From 1993, there was reasonably good insurance coverage for more than one-quarter of the population, including government workers and employees of private companies with more than 10 people. In 2008, additional schemes providing government subsidies emerged, but the bulk of the population continued to rely on out-of-pocket payments for medical care.
As of 2023, 93% of Vietnamese people had personal health insurance, up from 46% in 2008.
Vietnam enshrined universal social health insurance (SHI) coverage in its 2013 Constitution. In 2014, for the first time, the government introduced a compulsory health insurance scheme targeting the entire population, with a guarantee that a patient does not have to pay out of pocket for basic medical examination and treatment services.
Digitising Vietnam's healthcare system is an important next step to improve access to quality care and maintain health financing. Photo: Lam Nguyen
This generous insurance package benefits people like Vu, who is covered for 80% of his examination and medication fees. “With the number of illnesses I have, if I didn’t have insurance, I think I would die,” he says.
Vietnam has since seen a significant fall in mortality—particularly infant and child mortality, with infant mortality decreasing to 21 per 1,000 in 2021 compared to 30 per 1,000 in 2001—and a remarkable rise in life expectancy, which is now almost 74 years.
As of 2023, 93% of Vietnamese people had personal health insurance, up from 46% in 2008, according to Vietnam’s Ministry of Health. The government is working to increase coverage beyond 95% by 2025.
Improving efficiencies across Vietnam with digitisation
Digitising Vietnam’s healthcare system is an important next step to improve access to quality care and maintain health financing.
In November 2024, Bach Mai Hospital, among the largest public hospitals in Vietnam, launched its transition to electronic medical records, becoming one of the first public hospitals in Hanoi to officially adopt this system.
Every day, the hospital handles 7,000–10,000 out-patients and approximately 4,000 in-patients. Transitioning to electronic medical records allows all information about patients’ health conditions, medical history, and treatment to be stored online.
“This not only improves management efficiency but also facilitates quick access to information for doctors and medical staff, minimises errors in diagnosis and treatment, and reduces pressure in patient care and hospital operations,” states Bach Mai Hospital in a press release.
The hospital estimates that it spends nearly US$2 million annually purchasing films for imaging; these films are costly, generate a significant environmental footprint, and are challenging to store long-term. Switching to electronic health records eliminates the need for printed medical films and helps to reduce costs.
In the private sector, hospitals like Vinmec Hospital in Hanoi have started using a QR code system to scan for films and imaging. Patients can get their results faster, while reducing workloads for medical staff.
Tran Thi Kim Thanh, a senior medical student at Vietnam University of Traditional Medicine who is helping with the transition to electronic medical records, says private hospitals are ahead of the public sector. “It will take time for public [hospitals] to adopt this technology,” she says.
“With electronic health records, hospitals can utilise interconnected data to make decisions, such as whether a patient needs to be referred to a higher-level facility.”
The adoption of electronic health records in remote and rural areas faces even greater challenges, but the potential gains are substantial. Facilities in these regions are often underfunded, and there is a lack of skilled and qualified doctors. Even at the local level, many cases cannot be handled due to insufficiently equipped facilities and unqualified medical staff. In such cases, local hospitals must transfer patients to central hospitals in big cities.
This transfer process requires official documents from local hospitals. Medical records are then sent from district-level hospitals to central-level hospitals for treatment purposes. The process is time consuming.
Doctors say a centralised personal medical records system could enable central hospital doctors to assist district-level hospitals in deciding which patients need to be transferred. It would also make it easier to access patients’ medical histories.
“With electronic health records, hospitals can utilise interconnected data to make decisions, such as whether a patient needs to be referred to a higher-level facility,” explains Tac Van Nam, director of the Department of Health in Bac Kan, a remote province in northern Vietnam.
New electronic health record app centralises data
In July 2022, Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security introduced the VNeID app, aiming to simplify how the country’s 98 million people update their personal information in the national population database.
With 84% of the population owning smartphones, the initiative represents a critical step toward Vietnam’s broader digital healthcare transformation.
This system covers a range of data, including personal details, social insurance, health insurance, and other identification documents. In three years, the app has received more than 57 million registrations.
The adoption of VNeID has paved the way for innovative programs like electronic health records. In October 2024, the government launched an electronic health record function in the app. Since then, 32.1 million accounts have been created, including 14.6 million integrated with VNeID.
A nurse handling administrative duties at the procedures office in Bach Mai Hospital. Photo: Lam Nguyen
Patients like Vu can find their medical history, hospital paperwork, and health insurance card digitally on the app. “It will make my life so much easier if everything is in one place,” he says.
Understandably, there are some teething problems as the population transitions to the app. “While my health insurance is linked into the app, I still can’t activate the electronic health record function,” says Nguyen Phuong Anh, a student in Ho Chi Minh City, adding she supports the introduction of the app as a central source of healthcare information.
Yet the Vietnamese government has set an ambitious goal: by early 2025, all public and private healthcare facilities and 40 million people will be using electronic health records via VNeID. With 84% of the population owning smartphones, the initiative represents a critical step toward Vietnam’s broader digital healthcare transformation.
Harnessing support from the private sector
A growing number of private companies are working to support Vietnam’s transition to electronic health records. MedVoice is one such example. The AI-powered application for healthcare workers, built by a group of undergraduate students at RMIT University Vietnam, streamlines the digitisation of medical records by automating the transcription and categorisation of data.
“Its design and functionality are tailored to meet the professional needs of healthcare practitioners and ensure that it integrates seamlessly into their workflows and adheres to medical standards,” explains Tom Huynh, an IT associate lecturer at RMIT University Vietnam and advisor to the project.
“Automation greatly reduces the time and effort involved in manual data entry, enabling AI algorithms to swiftly interpret and organise text, hand-written notes, and speech into usable data.”
Digitisation of health records in Vietnam should not be viewed as an expense but as a strategic investment.
Huynh says ensuring healthcare staff are comfortable and proficient using the technology is key to a successful transition from paper-based to digital systems.
“It is crucial to provide education and training to healthcare workers on the proper use of these systems, and emphasise the importance of safeguarding patient information and understanding the data-handling processes involved,” he says.
Experts say existing regulations often emphasise technical specifications rather than comprehensive data privacy and security protocols. Huynh believes Vietnam’s healthcare system must build a “culture that prioritises data privacy and security at all levels, from IT administrators to healthcare practitioners”. Without this critical shift in mindset, he believes “even the most advanced digital systems risk being undermined by human error or negligence.”
Crucially, digitisation of health records in Vietnam should not be viewed as an expense but as a strategic investment. Properly implemented, it has the potential to reduce long-term operational costs while simultaneously improving healthcare quality.
Indeed, Vu, the street food seller, has shown interest having his paper-based health records converted into a digital format, explaining, “I would like to use them if they are available.”
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