GE Healthcare adjusts delivery of education and training amidst COVID-19 challenges

GE Healthcare adjusts the delivery of education and training to help deal with COVID-19 challenges and ensure a safe future

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in numerous changes to personal life and business operations. While Vietnam has eased up on social distancing measures in late April, some initiatives implemented as a result of COVID-19 have emerged as best practices to be continued even after COVID-19 is controlled.

GE Healthcare is privileged to partner with Vietnamese stakeholders to support the rising demand for healthcare services in the country. It does so through the introduction of advanced healthcare technologies, including the training of clinicians to use these applications. The efficient deployment of technology and the clinicians trained to use them has been critical in supporting the urgent needs of hospitals as they deal with the high influx of cases for COVID-19 diagnosis and treatment.

“Learning via a webinar is time and cost-saving. It’s very convenient for participants, especially for those who are working in private clinics like me, where CME regulations are very strict and courses provided by the university are cancelled. It’s so good to have GE Healthcare around like this,” said Dr. Doan Thi Hieu Duc, head of imaging department, family medical practice.

“COVID-19 created the push for new operational workflows and methods for engagement such as virtual training. This has fortunately proven to be beneficial for the overall healthcare ecosystem. Without COVID-19, Vietnam still faces high demand for healthcare services and the new operational workflows drive efficiency should continue to be implemented. We believe that virtual training will form a new pillar of education and training initiatives for Vietnam as clinicians start to become familiar with this method of delivering information,” said Son Pham, country manager for GE Healthcare Vietnam and CEO of GE Vietnam.

The delivery of regular virtual trainings has emerged during COVID-19 amidst the need for social distancing and country lockdown situations to communicate relevant COVID-19 information efficiently and help clinicians meet mandatory annual training requirements (Continuing Medical Education points) to maintain their licenses.

In April for example, GE Healthcare collaborated with the Vietnam Association of Radiology Technologists to organise several webinars around the use of X-Ray and chest CT techniques to aid the efficient diagnosis of COVID-19 cases, as well as provide safety guidelines for radiologists as they work to diagnose COVID-19 patients. In May, GE Healthcare supported the delivery of a virtual Continuing Medical Education (CME) session on “3D Uterus in Infertility”. CME sessions in the past, were usually conducted physically.

As industries including healthcare approach a new normal of safe operations after COVID-19, the same principles of leveraging industry contacts for widespread deployment throughout the country will continue, combined with technology to enable quick deployment. Post-pandemic, this also provides an additional benefit of sharing knowledge on-demand and across borders.

Vietnam is one of the fastest-growing economies in Southeast Asia. According to the Vietnam General Statistics Office, its GDP growth was 7.02 per cent in 2019, the second highest in a decade behind the 7.08 per cent in 2018. Income growth and changing demographic characteristics have contributed to a fast reduction of infectious diseases, but at the same time making Vietnamese prone to chronic, noncommunicable diseases. This notable shift in health problems requires a comprehensive adaptation of Vietnam’s healthcare system, from the training of doctors to the upgrading of hospital facilities to be capable of handling the specialised treatment of chronic disease.