A stroke patient successfully treated at HCM City's People's Hospital 115 thanks to its use of the RAPID artificial intelligence software. — VNA/VNS Photo Đinh Hằng

HCM CITY — With an eye on digital transformation, hospitals in HCM City have been adopting modern technology applications for examination and treatment.

The early results have been good.

Early in the morning every day, Lê Văn Thịnh Hospital in Thủ Đức City is full of patients waiting to meet doctors.

Trần Văn Đăng, 58, of Thủ Đức City, was quoted by Sài gòn Giải phóng (Liberated Sài Gòn) newspaper as saying one time he went to the hospital but had forgotten his health insurance card, and only had the VssID app on his phone.

The hospital accepted the soft copy.

VssID was launched by the Việt Nam Social Security in 2020 as a stand-in for its health insurance cards.

Besides, to pay the fees, he did not need to wait for his name to be called as usual, but saw the amount on the screen and could pay by ATM card.

“These conveniences for elderly patients like me are really beyond expectations,” he said.

HCM City Children's Hospital 1 has been pioneering apps to serve patients.

Ngô Ngọc Quang Minh, its deputy director, said the hospital has digitised most documents and medical records, and developed a software to monitor prescriptions.

“The medical treatment and drug bidding processes have been shortened.”

Thanks to all this, it handles nearly 6,000 outpatients and 1,500 inpatients a day, he said.

Last November, four young doctors from hospitals in the city were sent to work at a health station in the outlying Cần Giờ District’s Thạnh An Island Commune and operate the diagnostic imaging process with the help of artificial intelligence (AI).

Tăng Chí Thượng, director of the city Department of Health, said this sparked the road map for transforming the health station's community approach from an individual approach.

The use of AI is a strength in taking care of public health, he said.

People's Hospital 115 has long been known as the most modern centre in the southern region for stroke treatment.

In 2019, it adopted AI-based app Rapid.

Phan Văn Báu, director of the hospital, said more than 1,000 emergency stroke patients have been successfully treated by using the app in the last three years.

One of the most prominent examples of success in digital transformation is the co-ordination between the city Department of Health and hospitals for teleconsultation between physicians at primary health stations and specialists at major hospitals. — VNS