Taipei Veterans General Hospital (TVGH) Vice Superintendent Wui-Chiang Lee and the international medical team, together with Chunghwa Telecom and well-known domestic healthtech companies, were invited to Hanoi, Vietnam on 6 March to share the successful experience of Taiwan's smart healthcare services. The team will also visit the largest hospital in North Vietnam, Bai Chay Hospital, National Cancer Hospital and Hanoi Oncology Hospital, and other major partner hospitals.
The leadership team of the Internet Data Center (IDC), a joint venture between Viettel Group, a Vietnamese telecommunications company and Chunghwa Telecom, visited TVGH for smart healthcare. Following the visit, IDC invited TVGH to Vietnam to share the achievements and experiences of Taiwan's smart healthcare.
In his speech, Dr Wui-Chiang Lee shared the successful experience of Taipei Veterans General Hospital, which has recently been awarded the accreditation by the Joint Commission of Taiwan for Smart Hospital. He said that the hospital needs a system that is "practical and helpful to patients". Therefore, the main focus of Taipei Veterans General Hospital's smart healthcare is to adopt a patient-centred design, integrating more information and communication technologies into the patient flow and clinical care to improve quality and safety, as well as administrative service efficiency. He introduced the mobile registration system, which allows patients to make appointments, read reports and make payments on their mobile phones, which is particularly important during an epidemic, when patients can access telemedicine and pay online to achieve 'zero contact'.
Through the integration of various information, there is an automated checking mechanism from prescriptions written by doctors, dispensing by pharmacists to the administration of medication by nursing staff, which significantly prevents medication errors and reduces duplication of medication.
In addition, in order to reduce the waiting time for patients to undergo surgery, Taipei Veterans General Hospital opened a new intelligent surgery building on March 1, increasing the number of operating rooms to 68. These features are also used in the simulation training of young surgeons to increase clinical safety.
In recent years, TVGH has been applying artificial intelligence to outpatient and inpatient care, not only in special outpatient clinics with the aid of artificial intelligence, but also in endoscopy, dialysis, digital pathology, and risk warning for critically ill patients to improve safety and efficiency.
Since taking over the Ministry of Health and Welfare's "One Country, One Centre" project in Vietnam in 2018, the hospital has been actively cooperating with the industry to promote Taiwan's healthcare and ICT sectors. During the SARS epidemic, Taiwan and Vietnam also continued to exchange and collaborate with each other by video conferencing.
In line with the government's efforts to promote the digital transformation of hospitals and the 'medical-led business' approach, TVGH has signed a number of cooperation agreements with Vietnam and other ASEAN countries, not only to treat many international patients with difficult medical conditions and train medical staff, but also to collaborate with Taiwan's ICT industry to advance the development of the industry in Vietnam.
This year, Chunghwa Telecom, ASUS, BenQ and imedtac have been invited to the visit, hoping that through Taiwan's excellent medical technology, coupled with solid ICT strengths, together they can drive the development of superior technology and energy in the healthcare space, and lead other medical industries to export our strengths such as health insurance, medical information, cloud data and smart medical services to build a national brand in smart healthcare.
