Thanks to AI, reducing the time for cancer radiotherapy planning
At Ho Chi Minh City Oncology Hospital - which receives hundreds of head and neck cancer radiotherapy treatments every day, the pressure of overload to implement radiotherapy plans is very high. This raises the issue of applying an optimal, fast, and effective radiotherapy planning support tool, which is artificial intelligence (AI).
Talking to Lao Dong Newspaper about the application of AI in planning radiotherapy for head and neck cancer, Dr. Lam Duc Hoang - Head of the Department of Head and Neck Radiotherapy - Ho Chi Minh City Oncology Hospital - said that after about 3 months of training and implementation, 20 patients had this feature applied during the treatment process. "AI identifies and draws structures that are highly similar when compared with the results performed by doctors, engineers, and medical staff. There are even more beautiful and consistent drawings" - Dr. Duc Hoang shared.
With this AI-integrated Raysearch software application, the time to draw contours, determine the volume of critical healthy tissue, and the volume of target tissue in conventional radiotherapy planning for head and neck cancer is reduced from 2-4 hours to 2-4 minutes. The application helps save time and costs for patients, shortening the waiting time for radiotherapy planning from 5-10 days to 2-3 days. At the same time, it reduces pressure on doctors and medical physicists; saves costs and medical resources for patients and hospitals.
Ho Chi Minh City Oncology Hospital is the first place in Vietnam to apply Raysearch software integrated with AI in cancer radiotherapy planning. This is also the application registered to participate in the 5th Vietnam Medical Achievement Award, Smart Healthcare theme, jointly organized by the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health. Doctor Duc Hoang added that Raysearch software was built and stored by the world's leading radiotherapy experts, applied in about 1,000 hospitals and cancer centers worldwide.
Applying information technology to avoid hospital overload
According to information from the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health, in order to reduce overload and waiting time for patients, recently, medical facilities in the area have increased the application of information technology and AI to serve patients from the stage of reception, medical examination and treatment to discharge.
Regarding sustainable solutions, the city's health sector builds and develops a regional cancer prevention network and focuses on developing high-quality medical human resources from grassroots to specialized health care through projects.
According to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health, a total of 68 products registered to participate in the voting for the 5th Vietnam Medical Achievement Awards, Smart Healthcare topic. The products registered for voting include AI applications in the development of specialized techniques, applications that create convenience for people in need of health care, applications serving management work at medical facilities, and digital transformation applications in industry management.
All are aimed at continuously improving service quality, care quality, and enhancing efficiency in hospital administration and industry management.
