Technical implementation began last month in Hanoi, Vietnam, for the KfW-funded project ‘Decentralised Health Care Systems Telemedicine Project at Viet Duc Hospital to Provincial Hospitals’. As a pilot project, it is intended to connect 6 hospitals of various levels in Thanh Hoa and Yen Bai Provinces to the Viet Duc University Hospital (VDUH) in Hanoi. With a total value of 8.6m EUR, the project is intended to build upon the experience which VDUH has already gained by virtue of a telemedicine Satellite Programme established in the recent past.

EPOS Health Management, on cooperation with the International Virtual E-Hospital (IVeH) and Mediconsult Vietnam, will over the next 5 years assist VDUH to enable the 6 participating hospitals to extend their services through use of a telemedicine network which will allow quality- assured expansion of services in the areas of surgery, trauma and emergency care. In particular tele-consultation, tele-examination, tele-training, tele-radiology, tele-surgery, tele-monitoring and tele-case conferences will be established, including provision of relevant HMIS, PACS and a telemedicine platform.  The project is unique in terms of being the first such project to use the process of Systemic Procurement to ensure provision of comprehensive, trouble-free services.

The project kick-off meeting took place at the end of November in Hanoi, bringing together representatives of VHUD, the 6 participating hospitals, KfW Development Bank, Ministry of Health, and GIZ Hanoi. The EPOS team is lead by Mr Michael Weinhara with procurement advice contributed by Mr Pieter Riemersma, while IveH is represented through Prof. Dr. Rifat Latifi and Mr Flamur Bekteshi. Milena Beyene-Kuehnl, EPOS HQ manager of the project, joined the team for the kick-off.