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Description of Activity
The number of cancer facilities in Vietnam has not been able to successfully
accommodate the 150,000 patients diagnosed with cancer each year. There is also
a lack of overall cancer awareness among the Vietnamese communities. The Vietnamese
government lacks the economic means to bring adequate health care to its citizens.
This is a common problem among third-world countries. In order for this problem
to be solved completely, an extensive amount of effort and economic support is
required. Another problem Vietnam faces is that it is a communist country. Historically,
it has not made many changes in its public health department.
Being only an undergraduate student, I am unable to provide a political coup to create more health care policies. But I do have ideas on how to help the current situation on a more technological level. For the past two years, I have been doing extensive research at the Johns Hopkins University (under Dr. Joseph N. Gitlin) in the area of medical imaging and radiology. One of our current projects is Mobile Digital Telemammography (MDT). This mobile unit will be able to provide women in remote areas a method of obtaining their annual mammogram, PAP smear and various other procedures. Most women in these areas do not receive these procedures otherwise.
This project can be made applicable in other areas of the world where health care/hospitals are not accessible. The major problem that this poses on cancer is that the best method of “curing” cancer is early detection. My proposed project started off as trying to bring a MDT unit to Vietnam. However, the current project has taken years to organize, contacts with doctors and medical suppliers and millions of dollars of grant money. Realizing this would be an impossible feat, I decided to explore other options in the same field.
There were some other ways, other than bring a massive MDT unit to Vietnam,
that the health care system could be improved. First, in order to function with
optimally efficiency, the existing cancer facilities should be up-to-date with
modern equipment and imaging techniques to detect the cancer early on. There
have been several attempts from countries such as Japan, Australia and the United
States to provide medical equipment to hospitals in Vietnam at reduced costs.
Dr. Richard Love at the University of Wisconsin has been an active researcher
in this area. Dr. Love is the chairman of the National Cancer Institute in Hanoi.
He is currently conducting research on metastatic breast cancer and is working
on enhancing women’s health and breast cancer care in Vietnam.
The proposed project entails on-site interactions with the National Cancer Institute in Hanoi, Vietnam and the hospital in Vietnam. This project consists of the installation and instructional training of a GE bone densitometer. The usage of medical equipment is complicated and would require medical knowledge in both languages. Being fluent in both English and Vietnamese, I would have a significant role in this process. Also, my Hopkins research will provide a good background because we have work closely with GE Medical Systems. As a research assistant, I will be doing a lot of translating for installation of the bone densitometer and most likely head the instructional training. The training would ensure that the equipment is used efficiently. Also, I would help evaluate the integration of the new equipment into the existing medical procedure. I would also survey and/or interview the patients using the equipment to receive their input.
During the second half of this project, I will be working with MedTech Outreach Australia. In the past, they have provided imaging connections and consulting to hospitals in Vietnam. MedTech set up equipment for the hospitals to digitize films (using a digitial camera) and send them via the internet to a specific database. These films are accessible to doctors in Sydney, Australia and they provide their diagnostic evaluations on these films. MedTech is also a great company to be involved with for future projects, such as MDT. However for this summer project, I would like to be involved in bringing technology and consulting into the area of Ho Chi Minh City. I would be responsible for setting-up a digitizing area and connections to other hospitals as well instructional training and translation for any digitizing equipment or database usage.
I feel that by doing the proposed project, I can make a large impact on the cancer and health care problem in Vietnam. I have never been to Vietnam although it is my native country and I hope that this scholarship will provide me with a means to use the knowledge that I have obtained at Hopkins and apply it to help the Vietnamese community. I plan on making many trips after this one to Vietnam, to follow-up on the projects I would start this summer and to create new projects.
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