The Vietnam Public Health Portal was officially launched by the Ministry of Health on November 20, aimed at facilitating liaising with services provided by the health sector.

Available at https://congkhaiyte.moh.gov.vn, the portal is a joint effort between the ministry and military-run telecom group Viettel to publicise medical information towards an open, transparent health sector as well as providing the best health care for the people.

The portal provides information across five public areas, including pharmacy and cosmetics, medical equipment, food safety, examination and treatment, and public administration.

At the launch, Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long emphasised that the portal is the ministry’s official channel for people and businesses to look up information on drug and medical equipment prices, medical examination and treatment fees, information on circulating or recalled products, and the results of administrative procedures.

Through the Public Health Portal, people can exercise their right to inform themselves and monitor services provided by the health sector, Long said, adding that certain aspects are revolutionary in the medical sector, such as the portal making public a huge amount of information, including medical service fees.

Currently, 1,490 medical facilities and hospitals nationwide have publicly announced their service prices. In the near future, the ministry will require all clinics to publicise their medical service fees and their quality levels, as well as patients’ satisfaction assessments, according to Long.

In addition, the entire medical licensing process will be made public, he informed, adding that the ministry is promoting artificial intelligence (AI) in licensing for the pharmaceutical industry.

The ministry has developed a software system to support the price disclosure, allowing enterprises to register and to be granted accounts for self-implementation and are responsible for managing information posted publicly regarding the medical equipment price on the portal.

Hoang Son, Viettel Group Deputy General Director, pledged that his corporation would improve the features of the portal with the application of new technologies such as AI and virtual assistant (chatbot) in the interactions with users, as well as automatically answering questions and ensuring absolute safety and confidentiality for the effective operation of the portal.