Dr Hà Thị Thanh Hương. Photo Vietnamplus.vn

HÀ NỘI — Among 20 youths nominated for the Vietnamese Outstanding Young Face Award 2023 are many passionate scientists who have applied advanced technology in addressing real life problems and bringing value to their society.

Dr. Hà Thị Thanh Hương, from International University, Vietnam National University, HCM City, has used artificial intelligence to analyse MRI images of patients' brains and automatically diagnose Alzheimer's disease accurately, quickly and with reduced invasiveness.

She said Alzheimer's causes the highest mortality in the elderly. In the context of Việt Nam’s population ageing, research on Alzheimer's is becoming increasingly urgent.

“Disease diagnosis using this software, which is affordable for Vietnamese people, can be widely applied nationwide,” she said, adding that her research team has utilised big data technology and web-based applications to support doctors in remote diagnosis and patient data storage.

The project has connected with nearly 300 nurses and doctors at 42 hospitals across the country and won numerous domestic and foreign awards such as the Women of the Future Awards Southeast Asia 2023, and Golden Globe Science and Technology Award 2023 in the medical and pharmaceutical technology field.

She said in spite of the hard work, she always tries her best to study and hopes her projects will have practical impacts on the future.

“Patients can apply my research and slow down the progression of their diseases,” she told Vietnamplus.

Not only passionate about doing research, she is also a dedicated lecturer.

“Every time I see the bright eyes of students, see them grow, pursue their dreams, or hear that a patient is using our research products and making good progress, I feel like it’s worth taking on the challenges,” Dr Hương said.

Cancer screening by AI

Dr Hà Huy Hiệu Photo Vietnamplus.vn

As one of 20 youths shortlisted for the Vietnamese Outstanding Young Face Award 2023, Dr. Hà Huy Hiệu, VinUni University, is well known for medical inventions that help solve medical and technological problems and challenges in Việt Nam.

One of his famous research projects is VinDr - an open-source software for managing and labelling medical image data.

It helps doctors in cancer screening and detecting incurable diseases. This solution has been deployed in more than 40 hospitals across the country and treated more than 300,000 patients per month, evaluated by doctors as helping to reduce errors and support screening.

Hiệu also studied VAIPE: Smart health care monitoring and support system for Vietnamese people, a mobile solution which integrates advanced technologies in AI and data analysis.

The study won the AI Awards 2022 organised by the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Dr Hiệu has published 50 scientific articles in prestigious international journals and conferences, including 20 scientific articles in Q1 journals.

In 2023, he won the Golden Globe Science Award.

Earlier, the scientist was honoured with the ISCN Excellence Awards for a digital health project with outstanding contributions to sustainable development, and received the DAAD Fellows 2021 award for outstanding young researchers in AI.

Every tree has online code

Đặng Dương Minh Hoàng. Photo Vietnamplus.vn

Đặng Dương Minh Hoàng, director of Thiên Nông Bình Phước Agricultural Service Cooperative, has pioneered the effort to build planting area codes for orchards. Each tree has its own website with daily growing diary recorded online.

Thanks to the digitalisation, his cooperative has succeeded in officially exporting fruits into foreign markets, especially the Southeast Asian countries and China, maintaining high growth with annual revenue twice as much as last year.

Hoàng’s chains of farms and cooperatives have created jobs for 25 regular workers, mostly from S'tieng and Khmer ethnic minorities, and 10 seasonal workers.

Hoàng is also an active farmer who has held workshops to inspire young farmers nationwide to start up their agricultural models.

In 2023, he was honoured as one of the winners of the Việt Nam Golden Book of Creativity, and was among the top 20 of the Youth Startup Award 2023.

He also received the Prime Minister's Certificate of Merit twice, for outstanding achievements in patriotic emulation movements and another on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of President Hồ Chí Minh's call for patriotic emulation. — VNS

​