Instead of carrying medical records and test results when transferring hospitals or returning for follow-up visits, patients can now simply take photos and upload the data to the website www.medithank.vn, and doctors can access medical records with a single click.
Trương Thanh Hoài, founder and CEO of mediThank Vietnam Joint Stock Company, said the application is particularly useful for outpatients and those living far away, helping them save considerable travel time and costs. In addition, mediThank's data digitization technology helps doctors review patients' health conditions before examining and treating them.
‘In Vietnam, most online medical records are stored by hospital systems exclusively for doctors. With mediThank, patients and ordinary users proactively update their personal health information and control that dataset,’ Hoài said. Users upload all their medical information to personal accounts, after which mediThank staff organize and store it in appropriate categories so that doctors and account holders can easily follow it.
According to Thanh Hoài, the app acts as a bridge connecting doctors and patients, so online data on mediThank is for reference only and does not replace medical records or official hospital databases. “Medical data is sensitive because not many people want to disclose their medical conditions. Account privacy is therefore always our top priority,” mediThank's founder said.
Specifically, regarding permission to view and consult data, users can restrict which doctors, clinics/hospital departments, or SOS emergency units are allowed to view and consult their health status. In addition to users updating their own data, doctors and medical facilities can also update medical data in a user's account if the account holder gives permission, within the authorized period.
Established in 9/2016 with investment of over 1 billion đồng, mediThank initially received positive responses from doctors at HCMC Oncology Hospital and an international hospital in Singapore. These results came from the tireless efforts of its founder and 5 collaborators startup other.
“I had often witnessed relatives and friends struggle to have tests repeated after losing their earlier results while their conditions continued to worsen,” Hoài recalled. “Two years ago, after I happened to read an Indian document related to medicine, the idea of creating an online record-storage system came to me.”
“The more I read and learned about medicine, the more ‘captivated’ I became by it. That was also the motivation that drove me to abandon a footwear startup project related to the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement (TPP), which was in the stage of gestating‘, Hòa shared. Initially, the project had around 6 – 8 supporters specializing in programming, design, and medical knowledge. During the programming phase in particular, Thanh Hoài said that because he did not come from an information technology (IT) background, he had to sit beside the IT employee every day for 6 months, explaining and analyzing every detail of the project so the product could be completed according to its original direction.
“Beyond its business purpose, I hope this project will contribute to society by reducing overcrowding at major hospitals and improving the image of Vietnamese doctors, making them look more professional and modern with a smartphone or iPad in hand rather than a stack of medical records,” Hoài said.
mediThank reportedly currently offers 4 service packages for customer accounts—people who are not doctors or healthcare facility representatives—including a free package (0đ for the first month of service) and a basic package (242,000đ/year). Users register an account on www.medithank.vnwill be provided with a domestic access code to use storage, doctor appointment scheduling and other features on the website.
For the 2 service packages—the gold package (VND 770,000/year) and the special package (VND 4,620,000/10 years)—customers receive a globally accessible medical code and are permitted to access the Vietnamese version (www.medithank.vn) and English (www.medithank.com).
‘Launching both domestic and international versions demonstrates mediThank's long-term strategy of expanding into other countries, especially since the project's target customers are entrepreneurs who frequently travel abroad for business, tourism, or medical treatment,’ Hoài said.
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