The project was approved on the legal basis of the Politburo’s Decree No.52-NQ/TW dated September 27, on certain guidelines and policies to actively participate in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (also known as Industry 4.0) and the Directive No.16/CT-TTg on May 4, 2017 by the Prime Minister on enhancing capacity to get access to the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

The project has a common goal of “Applying and developing digital technology and smart technology in healthcare to contribute to developing a modern, qualified, fair, effective and international integrated healthcare system of Viet Nam; helping citizens easily get access to healthcare information to use healthcare services with high efficiency and to be protected, taken care of and enjoy a life-long and continuous improvement in health”.

On the basis of the common goal, the project has three specific objectives as follows:

Objective 1: Building and gradually forming a smart healthcare and medical preventive system, contributing to effectively implementing the Vietnam Health Program.

Objective 2: Promoting the application of information technology at health check-up and treatment facilities, contributing to boosting administrative reform and reducing hospital overload;  using electronic medical records towards getting rid of paper medical records, applying electronic treatment fee payments and creating smart hospitals.

Objective 3: Enhancing the application of information technology in health management, deploying electronic office system, public service portal and one-door electronic information system on administrative procedures, promoting online public services at level 3 and 4 and building a smart health administration system.

In order to fulfil these objectives, the health ministry mapped out nine groups of tasks and solutions, including: finalizing the legal system, standards, regulations and economic-technical norms; developing medical information technology infrastructure; building a smart healthcare and disease prevention system, contributing to successfully implementing the Viet Nam Health Program; building and applying electronic medical records for the whole population with a target to have 100 per cent of the population having electronic medical records by 2025.