GE Healthcare hosts cardiac care workshop for Vietnamese clinicians

More than 100 physicians who attended the event received hands-on training demonstration on GE’s recent ultrasound offerings, the Vivid S6 and Vivid T8, as well as instructions from Dr. Rahal Yusoff, a cardiology specialist based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The seminar is the first event hosted by GE Healthcare’s recently launched Ultrasound School, a virtual institution directly under the company’s ASEAN Healthcare Learning Institute, which is dedicated to the education and training of Vietnamese clinicians in the use of ultrasound equipment.

In 2010, non-communicable diseases accounted for 75 per cent of all deaths in Vietnam according to the World Health Organization. Among them, cardiovascular disease contributed to nearly 40 per cent of all deaths in the country. Yet echocardiograms, one of the most commonly used procedures globally to diagnose and treat heart disease, is being underutilised across the country due to a lack of training and education on the procedure.

“All across Vietnam, heart disease is on the rise,” said Dr. Do Doan Loi, head of Vietnam National Heart Institute. “With nearly 90 million residents, Vietnam needs to develop more heart centres and train more cardiologists about echocardiograms to care for the hearts of the Vietnamese people.”

An ultrasound machine can produce images that enable clinicians to identify various abnormalities in the heart muscle and valves.

“The use of echocardiograms is extremely important in the diagnosis and treatment of heart disease,” said Dr. Rahal. “As a non-invasive procedure, it allows a doctor access to important information about the structure and blood flow of the heart without causing pain or risk to the patient. The information gained from an echo helps clinicians make an accurate diagnosis and develop a treatment plan best suited for their patient.”

GE Healthcare will be hosting a similar seminar on echocardiograms and cardiovascular care in Ho Chi Minh City on April 18 with Dr. Rahal.

Today, more than half of all clinics and hospitals in Vietnam have at least one unit of GE medical technology. In March 2015, GE Healthcare signed an education collaboration with Bach Mai Hospital which focused on the use of patient monitors to improve clinical decision making in the Intensive Care Unit and Emergency Department.

GE Healthcare provides medical technologies and services such as medical imaging, software and IT, patient monitoring and diagnostics to drug discovery, biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies and performance improvement solutions.

The ASEAN Healthcare Learning Institute (AHLI) is an academy set up by GE Healthcare to address the need for healthcare education and capacity building across ASEAN. In collaboration with healthcare professionals and healthcare providers within the region and globally, AHLI offers clinical, technical and leadership education.