Delegates launch the tissue bank of Đông Đô General Hospital in Hà Nội on December 5. — VNS Photo Thanh Hải

HÀ NỘI — The Hà Nội-based Đông Đô General Hospital, on December 5, launched its tissue bank on the occasion of its 15th establishment anniversary.

This event marks an important step forward for the hospital in developing a tissue transplant network in Việt Nam and improving the quality of eye care, meeting the increasing treatment needs of patients in Hà Nội.

Speaking at the event, Đông Đô General Hospital CEO Đinh Thị Phương Thủy said that the tissue banks with standardised storage systems and operating procedures and a data management platform will help ensure biosafety, maintain tissue integrity and traceability.

“This is an important foundation for Đông Đô Hospital to deploy advanced transplantation techniques (including corneal transplantation), shorten waiting times, increase accessibility and improve the reliability of treatment results for patients,“ said Thủy.

Not only corneas, Thủy said, the tissue bank also stores and preserves amniotic membranes from healthy postpartum mothers, a valuable tissue source for treating corneal surface diseases and many complex emergency situations.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Health, Việt Nam currently has more than 300,000 people who are blind due to corneal diseases. Each year, the number of people blind due to corneal diseases increases by 15,000 people.

The waiting list for transplants is about 1,000 patients. Although most can restore vision through standard corneal transplants, the tissue source is still limited, not meeting the need for widespread treatment.

At the ceremony, Deputy Minister of Health Đỗ Xuân Tuyên praised the hospital's contributions, especially in the fields of ophthalmology and assisted reproduction, to health care for the capital's people over the past years.

“Đông Đô General Hospital has promoted and applied modern new science and technology not only to treat domestic patients but also to attract many foreign patients to come for treatment. This is the highlight of Đông Đô Hospital and also a bright spot contributing to promoting the development of Việt Nam's medical tourism model,” said Tuyên.

The Ministry of Health encourages public and non-public health facilities to apply advanced and modern techniques to limit people from going abroad for medical treatment and attract foreigners to come for medical treatment. This is the first step in forming a model of health care that combines medical care and tourism, according to Tuyên.

At the ceremony, Đông Đô General Hospital was awarded the NIDEK Advanced Ophthalmic Technology Center Certificate by NIDEK Corporation (Japan) according to strict Japanese quality standards.

Representatives of Đông Đô General Hospital and Nikko Academy sign comprehensive cooperation agreement on the fields of stem cells, corneal transplantation and hospital management. — VNS Photo Thanh Hải

Đông Đô General Hospital and Nikko Academy also signed a comprehensive cooperation agreement on the fields of stem cells, corneal transplantation and hospital management.

The two sides agreed on long-term cooperation in human resource development, technology transfer and application of advanced medical management models, towards the goal of establishing the first international standard Corneal Transplant Centre in Việt Nam.

Over the past 15 years, Đông Đô General Hospital has received and successfully treated hundreds of thousands of patients, from simple cases to complex cases requiring high techniques.

Đông Đô Eye Hospital also is a pioneer in Việt Nam in applying modern refractive surgery technologies such as CLEAR and SmartSight or leading technologies in global refractive treatment trends or bladeless cataract surgery such as Femto Cataract.

More than 10,000 healthy IVF babies have been born at the hospital in the past 15 years. Đông Đô IVF Centre marks its pioneering position and leading technology with an outstanding success rate when it is in the Top 10 famous brands in ASEAN. — VNS