Patient-centered care: transforming the healthcare system in Vietnam with support of digital health technology (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Over the last several decades, Vietnam has attained remarkable achievements in all areas of the healthcare system. However, shortcomings including health disparities persist. Besides, the country is undergoing a dramatic demographic transition with a steady growth of the population that is rapidly ageing. This has resulted in a shift in the disease burden from communicable to non-communicable diseases, such as dementia, cancer and diabetes. These medical conditions require long-term care that causes an accelerating crisis for the health sector and society. The current healthcare system in Vietnam is unlikely to cope with these challenges. OBJECTIVE The aim of this paper was to provide an analysis of the current healthcare situation in Vietnam and explore the opportunities and challenges in transforming toward a patient-centered care model to produce better health for people and reduce healthcare costs. METHODS We examine the applicability of a personalised and integrated healthcare system, known as Bespoke healthcare (BHS), for Vietnam using a Strength – Weakness – Opportunity – Threat (SWOT) analysis and examining the successes or failures of digital healthcare innovations in Vietnam. We then make suggestions for successful adoption of the BHS model in Vietnam. RESULTS Patient-centered care of the BHS empowers patients to become active participants in their own healthcare. Vietnam has tremendous potential and favorable policy, social, technological and economic environment for the transition of its healthcare system toward the BHS model. Nevertheless, the country is in an early stage of healthcare digitalisation. The legal and regulatory system to protect patient privacy and information security is still lacking. The readiness to implement electronic medical records – a core element of the BHS, varies across health providers and clinical practices. The scarcity of empirical evidence and evaluation regarding the effectiveness and sustainability of digital health initiatives is an obstacle for Vietnamese government in policymaking, development and implementation of healthcare digitalisation. CONCLUSIONS Implementing personalised and integrated healthcare system may help Vietnam to address healthcare needs, reduce pressure on the healthcare system and society, improve healthcare delivery and promote health equity. However, in order to adopt the patient-centered care system and digitalised healthcare, a whole-system approach in transformation and operation with a co-design in the whole span of digital health initiatives’ developing process are necessary.

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Using Mobile Health Technology to Enhance Patient-Centered Care

Clinical Nurse Specialist ◽

10.1097/nur.0b013e3181ecda6a ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 24 (5) ◽

pp. 233-234

Author(s):

AMY J. BARTON

Keyword(s):

Mobile Health ◽

Health Technology ◽

Patient Centered Care ◽

Patient Centered ◽

Mobile Health Technology ◽

Centered Care

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The GIMEMA-ALLIANCE Digital Health Platform for Patients With Hematologic Malignancies in the COVID-19 Pandemic and Postpandemic Era: Protocol for a Multicenter, Prospective, Observational Study (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.25271 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Fabio Efficace ◽

Massimo Breccia ◽

Paola Fazi ◽

Francesco Cottone ◽

Bernhard Holzner ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Quality Of Life ◽

Digital Health ◽

Hematologic Malignancies ◽

Patient Centered Care ◽

Patient Reported Outcome ◽

Routine Practice ◽

Patient Centered ◽

Patient Reported ◽

Centered Care

BACKGROUND The COVID-19 pandemic has raised unprecedented challenges in the management of patients with cancer and has increased the demands for digital health tools that, for example, could facilitate remote monitoring of patients. Based on this, the Gruppo Italiano Malattie Ematologiche dell’Adulto (GIMEMA) has recently developed a digital health tool dedicated to patients with hematologic malignancies: the GIMEMA-ALLIANCE platform. OBJECTIVE The main objectives of this web-based platform are to generate relevant data to better understand quality of life, symptoms, and medication adherence during the COVID-19 pandemic and postpandemic era; to develop a prospective real-life registry on outcomes of patients with hematologic cancer, with or without a diagnosis of COVID-19; and to facilitate patient-centered care in routine practice. METHODS The platform consists of physician- and patient-secure portals and enables electronic patient-reported outcome (ePRO) assessments with real-time graphical presentation to physicians of individual patient symptoms and quality-of-life outcomes. Automated alerts are sent to treating hematologists based on the following predetermined criteria: presence of clinically important problems and symptoms, problems with adherence to therapy, and risk of COVID-19 diagnosis. The platform also allows physicians to set up video consultations. Clinical information regarding disease and treatment as well as clinical and survival outcomes are also prospectively collected. RESULTS Recruitment of participants started in December 2020. As of April 2021, a total of 116 patients have been enrolled in this study. Use of this platform may help to improve patient-physician communication and help hematologists in the early recognition of clinically important problems and symptoms of their patients. More than 20 community and university-based hospitals have currently agreed to participate. In addition to patient-reported outcome data, the prospective collection of disease- and treatment-related information, as well as data on possible COVID-19 diagnosis and COVID-19 vaccination, will allow the development of a large database to also identify subgroups of patients at risk of poor outcomes. CONCLUSIONS Data generated via this platform will help to answer clinically relevant questions for patients with hematologic malignancies during the COVID-19 pandemic and postpandemic era. The use of the GIMEMA-ALLIANCE platform in routine practice may also contribute to enhancing patient-centered care. CLINICALTRIAL ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04581187; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04581187 INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT PRR1-10.2196/25271

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Inpatients’ Perception of Patient-Centered Care in Guangdong Province, China: A Cross-Sectional Study

INQUIRY The Journal of Health Care Organization Provision and Financing ◽

10.1177/00469580211059482 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 58 ◽

pp. 004695802110594

Author(s):

Ling-ming Zhou ◽

Richard Huan Xu ◽

Yan-hua Xu ◽

Jing-hui Chang ◽

Dong Wang

Keyword(s):

Healthcare System ◽

Rural Areas ◽

Guangdong Province ◽

Patient Centered Care ◽

Public Healthcare ◽

Cross Sectional Survey ◽

Patient Centered ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Public Healthcare System ◽

Centered Care

This study aimed to investigate the perceptions of patient-centered care (PCC) among inpatients in Guangdong Province (GD), China. Based on these perspectives, we sought to understand existing PCC practices in medical institutions and identify the impacts of inpatients’ sociodemographic status on their perceived PCC. A self-developed PCC questionnaire was used to investigate inpatients’ perceptions of PCC. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in nine tertiary-level hospitals across five cities in GD. Descriptive statistics was used to describe the levels of PCC in GD. The differences in PCC levels across different sociodemographic groups were assessed using analysis of variance and multivariate linear regression. Valid responses were provided by 1863 inpatients. The mean overall PCC score was 8.58 (standard deviation [SD] = 1.36); inpatients from the Pearl River Delta and eastern GD area reported significantly higher scores than those from western and northern GD area ( P<.01). Inpatients from rural areas tended to report lower PCC scores than their urban counterparts. Among the PCC questionnaire sub-domains, inpatients scored highest and lowest in “patient experience” (mean = 8.96, SD = 1.34) and “medical insurance” (mean = 7.93, SD = 2.05), respectively. This study provided a comprehensive overview of inpatients’ perceptions of PCC in the public healthcare system in GD, China. Our findings highlighted that a majority of inpatients were satisfied with the PCC in public healthcare system; however, a significant discrepancy between inpatients with different sociodemographic status remained.

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