Delegates launch an online management and administration centre for professional assistance of Covid – 19 diagnosis and treatment at the health ministry in Hà Nội on March 5. — VNS Photo Thanh Hải

HÀ NỘI — The National Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control launched an online management and administration centre for professional assistance of Covid-19 diagnosis and treatment at the health ministry in Hà Nội on Thursday.

The centre will manage and coordinate resources and professional activities to support medical facilities in collecting, isolating, diagnosing and treating Covid-19 patients directly or remotely via information technology and telecommunication facilities.

“The connection between experts, central hospitals and lower-level hospitals helps to quickly provide professional instructions, advice and support from leaders and experts to the front-line doctors who are directly treating patients,” said Associate Professor Lương Ngọc Khuê, director of the Medical Services Administration (MSA) under the Ministry of Health at the launching ceremony.

"The effective application of information technology in remote treatment consultancy helps to improve the disease handling capacity of the medical examination and treatment system and promptly cope with the levels of Covid-19 epidemic scenarios,” said Khuê.

The centre will develop, revise or update professional instructions for medical diagnosis, examination, treatment and care procedures. It will also establish relevant professional councils to provide direct and  online support for medical examination and treatment facilities on the collection, diagnosis and treatment of Covid-19 patients.

The centre will also deploy Health Solutions 4.0, which are integrated solutions of video conferencing technology (teleconferencing), centralised electronic medical records, connecting with patient monitoring machine, PACS cloud system for discussion of image diagnostic results, allowing doctors, health managers and experts to directly provide consultancy to lower level hospitals to improve the quality of diagnosis and treatment.

The centre is capable of connecting to 23 key epidemic prevention points and more than 1,400 hospitals across the country.

At the event, the MSA also introduced a set of instructions for Covid-19 disease diagnosis and treatment, including: a medical information book for mobile teams to respond quickly to the Covid-19 epidemic; guidance on the prevention and control of Covid-19 infection; and guidelines for Covid-19 diagnosis and treatment.

These important documents provide guidance for the diagnosis and prevention of acute respiratory infections caused by the novel coronavirus, helping healthcare facilities, patients and health workers to detect, diagnose, treat and prevent infections in hospitals.

As of 6am today, more than 95,000 COVID-19 patients had been reported in 81 countries and territories around the world, according to the Ministry of Health. More than 3,250 fatalities had been reported worldwide, with 2,981 in China. Việt Nam has had no new cases since February 13. — VNS