A sample of an electronic medical record. (Photo: laodong.vn)
Hanoi (VNS/VNA) – The Ministry of
Health (MoH) is drafting a circular on a pilot programme for electronic medical
records in a bid to save time and money for both doctors and patients.
The draft circular is expected to be issued this
year and take effect at the beginning of next year.
The draft is now available on the government
portal and Ministry of Health’s websites at chinhphu.vn and moh.gov.vn,
where the Ministry is seeking to collect public opinion.
The (EMR) system has
been piloted at several hospitals including the
and the and Ha Tinh
General Hospital. It would be applied at all health care facilities across
the country by 2020.
Under the draft circular, the electronic medical
records (EMR) are a digitalised version of the old paper records and they have
the same function as described in the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment.
Each citizen has an electronic medical record
which will be monitored and stored for a lifetime.
A doctor who wished to be anonymous said the
implementation of the EMR system will bring about a lot of advantages. The
system helps improve diagnosis and treatment, he told Lao dong (Labour)
newspaper.
Electronic medical health records and
information sharing within a medical practice naturally reduce handwriting
errors, he said, adding that the bad handwriting of many doctors is causing
trouble for people who wanted to read records.
He also said that the problem of lost or
misplaced patient files will also be eliminated with the introduction of the
new system.
The draft circular stipulated that the EMRs
should meet a number of requests, including compliance with regulations of the
Ministry of Health and Ministry of Information and Communications.
The EMR system must control users’ access to
particular patient information while ensuring the patients’ privacy, it said.
In accordance with the draft circular, the
personal health records will be set up based on codes issued by Vietnam Social
Security.
It is necessary to adopt preventive measures to
stop illegal access to electronic medical records and recover them in case
errors occur.
While some believe that the application of the
EMR system will help produce a marked increase in the health and welfare of
patients, others are still concerned about the privacy of patients and their
medical records.
Nguyen Danh Hue from the Hanoi Bar Association
told the newspaper that protecting the privacy of patients was the
responsibility of hospitals.
Thus, he said, hospitals should take measures to
ensure that patients’ information was preserved.
“As we are entering the fourth industrial
revolution, people have less privacy and fewer secrets. It happens not only in Vietnam but
in other countries as well,” he said.
Because an individual’s phone number is recorded
in many places and at many moments, it is very difficult to track down when the
personal information was revealed, if it is used inappropriately.
Hue urged state agencies to avoid copying
information as the protection of information depends on humans, no matter what
the information collection and storage process entails.
“It is not easy to prevent hackers but we could
put an end to information leaking by taking sound measures,” he said.-VNS/VNA
Source: VietnamPlus
