Three hospitals in Thu Duc City want to incorporate genomic medicine into primary health care

Directors of three hospitals and Thu Duc City Medical Center signed a memorandum of understanding on the action program "Integrating genomic medicine into primary health care" - Photo: AC

Opening the workshop "Integrating genomic medicine into primary health care" on April 20 at Thu Duc City Hospital (HCMC), Mr. Vu Tri Thanh - Director of Thu Duc City Hospital - said that the era of rapid development of science and technology along with achievements in genomic medicine has opened a new era in medicine. This is both an opportunity and a challenge for the global health sector.

Understanding the human genome has come a long way. Applying genomic medicine to determine disease risks and tendencies, thereby helping diagnose, predict, and choose treatment methods that need priority.

"The leadership of the hospitals and Thu Duc City Center will work together to build an action program, applying the achievements of genomic medicine to medical examination and treatment activities suitable to the reality of each unit.

This will help people have more choices in medical treatment at the most suitable cost, contributing to improving the effectiveness of medical examination and treatment, especially initial medical examination and treatment," said Mr. Thanh.

Mr. Tran Van Khanh - Director of Le Van Thinh Hospital - said that the rate of patients diagnosed with diseases, especially cancer and chronic non-communicable diseases, is increasing.

Most patients discover the disease when symptoms already appear, at a late stage.

Primary health care (district and county hospitals and ward and commune health stations) is the primary health care facility that receives special attention from the Government , to help reduce the burden of disease, reduce investment costs for specialized health care and build hospitals...

Mr. Khanh added that the current trend in primary health care in the world is to combine genomic medicine. Many journals and medical literature in the world have articles related to the integration of genomic medicine with primary health care. The combination of genetics and primary health care helps bring people the best health.

Regarding the application of genomic medicine in primary health care in Vietnam, Dr. Nguyen Duy Sinh (Institute of Medical Genetics - Gene Solutions) said that there are still many challenges when clinicians, primary health care doctors, and family doctors cannot implement it due to time pressure, lack of tools, and no published research on the value of health history.

In addition, primary health care facilities do not have tools to accurately create health histories or draw family trees. People do not know about their health histories and cannot build health for their families. In addition, genetic testing is not popular in our country, and genetic counseling before and after testing is limited.

Doctor CKII Nguyen Van Khuon - head of Thu Duc City's medical department - said that to bring genomic medicine into primary health care, there needs to be a clear roadmap, in which human resources play a key role.

This workshop is very important and practical in the process of successfully implementing the smart healthcare project of Thu Duc City in the period of 2025 and the following years.

At the conference, the directors of three hospitals in Thu Duc City, Le Van Thinh, Le Van Viet and Thu Duc City Medical Center signed a memorandum of understanding on the action program "Integrating genomic medicine into primary health care".

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/benh-vien-tp-hcm-muon-ket-hop-y-hoc-he-gene-vao-cham-soc-suc-khoe-ban-dau-2024042016305644.htm