Vietnam Hospital Digitalization Will Speed up: Fitch Solutions

Fitch Solutions Country Risk and Industry Research (a unit of Fitch Group) has just published the outlook for Vietnam’s healthcare sector, forecasting that the country’s digital healthcare sector holds a lot of promise. The need for Vietnamese hospitals to meet the significant demand for medical services will see healthcare providers look towards technology to enhance their operational efficiency. There remain some challenges to digital health solution adoption in Vietnam, the agency said. However, a number of important barriers still hinder digital adoption in Vietnamese hospitals, both public and private, namely (i) healthcare professionals and patients are reluctant to use digital-based systems due to unfamiliarity with these tools and technological constraints at home, (ii) unclear and complicated administrative processes slow digital adoption, and (iii) the output of data is not standardized across hospitals, and data security remains a concern for healthcare providers, weakening inter-hospital integration. The start-up sector in Vietnam, albeit small in size compared to that of other Southeast Asian countries such as Singapore or Indonesia, is also actively contributing to the digitalization of healthcare. Like pharmaceuticals and medical devices, health tech start-ups operate in a highly regulated sector where there are still many uncertainties in the regulatory landscape. The government will have to play a bigger role in encouraging collaboration between industry players and other stakeholders, provide incentives, and formulate clear policies. Thus, though there is still a lot of room for the health tech sector to grow, the digital transformation of healthcare in Vietnam is already well underway. (Fitch Solutions)