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| Guests view a machine at the newly-opened liver center - Photo: Quoc Hung |
The center is a joint-venture between Singapore-based Asian Center for Liver Disease and Transplantation (ACLDT) and Vietnam’s Hoa Lam Investment Development Corporation (Hoa Lam).
The center will offer diagnostics, endoscopy and consultations to patients having Hepatitis B and C, fatty liver, liver cancer and alcoholic liver disease. Singapore-based specialists from ACLDT will travel regularly to Vietnam to provide liver care and advice, supported by a local ACLVN medical team, according to the venture.
Located at 201 Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street in District 1, the decent facility has examination rooms, an endoscopy suite, ultrasound room and a pharmacy.
It is also connected by sophisticated tele-medical technology which allows doctors from Singapore to have face-to-face consultation with patients in Vietnam. Doctors can also remotely examine X-rays and follow up with advice for further treatment.
ALCVN is the first such joint-venture satellite clinic by ACLDT, whose lead surgeon Tan Kai Chah has carried out over 800 liver transplantations.
Apart from liver treatment, ALCVN will refer patients requiring surgery or transplantations to ACLDT which is based in Gleneagles Hospital, Singapore, said Tran Thi Lam, chairwoman of the local partner. She noted the new center was the initial human resource preparation to put the first general hospital in the Hi-Tech Healthcare Park in HCMC into operation.
“In the near future, I do believe that Doctor KC Tan will attract more professional doctors from other countries to come working at the Hi-Tech Healthcare Park,” she said.
The opening ceremony for ALCVN was witnessed by senior government and health officials, business leaders and VIPs including Vietnam’s former Prime Minister Phan Van Khai. It was followed by a seminar, attended by over 200 Vietnamese doctors and health officials, at which ACLDT surgeons presented papers on liver disease.
“We are excited by the opportunity of working with a highly regarded partner such as the Hoa Lam Corporation to bring advanced liver care and treatment to Vietnam. For ACLDT, this center is strategically important as it is our first satellite clinic. Its success will pave the way for more centers in Asia and possibly the Middle East,” said ACLDT’s Tan.
ACLDT currently treats about 270 Vietnamese patients a year and has conducted five liver transplantations for Vietnamese patients to date.
“It is our mission to help train the doctors and medical personnel in Vietnam so that in the years to come, Vietnamese patients can be treated here for a fraction of the costs compared to going abroad,” he said.
Tan added that “with this technology transfer, we hope that in two years time we will have the expertise to commence a full-fledged Liver Center in the new Medical Hi-Tech Park, itself a JV between a Singapore company and Hoa Lam Corporation.
The park project worth US$400 million and located at 532A Kinh Duong Vuong Street in Tan Binh District was owned by Singapore’s Hoa Lam-Shangri-La Healthcare Co., which organized a groundbreaking ceremony in 2008. Under the investor’s investment scheme, the park will cover more than 37.5 hectares in the district, about 10 kilometers from the city’s central business district.
