The “Online Medicine Ecosystem,” by Dr. Huynh Le Thai Bao and students from DTU Faculty of Medicine won first prize at the 2021 Youth Drivers for Change Awards, because of its convenience and high value in the community.
Dr. Thai Bao (upper picture) and nationwide project team
The Youth Drivers for Change awards, highlighting social ventures of the younger generation throughout Vietnam
The awards are part of the Youth Drivers for Change program, organized by the Center for Sustainable Development Studies (CSDS), held since 2014 with financial support from Irish Aid. Since then, the program has resulted in many positive contributions from young people all over the country. This year, the awards focused on projects for sustainable community development after adaptation to the recent Covid-19 pandemic.
The 2021 awards program received 46 submissions and, for the first time, was held online through Zoom and streamed live on the CSDS Vietnam fan page. The jury consisted of 41 members from NGOs, universities, businesses executives, independent social venture consultants and youth leaders across Vietnam.
The “Online Medicine Ecosystem” project: Presentation of the first prize Youth Drivers for Change award
In the final round, the top five projects were given 3 minutes each to present their projects and then 12 minutes to answer questions from the jury.
In June 2019, with the support of CSDS Vietnam, the Vietnam Volunteer Centre, and DTU, Dr. Huynh Le Thai Bao, a lecturer at the DTU Faculty of Medicine and leader of the DTU Medical Volunteer Group, introduced the project.
The “Online Medicine Ecosystem” project provides access to important medical information
For the benefit of medical staff and students nationwide, the project led to the creation of an online medicine ecosystem comprised of five parts:
- Mobile phone app (for iOS, Android or any other operating system). This app is the foundation of the system, providing the user with online courses of 1,200 lessons, multiple-choice tests, a series of webinars, CME syntheses and medically related events.
- The website ykhoa.org contains over 3,600 medical articles.
- The Dien dan Y khoa group, with 23,000 members, the Kenh Y Khoa page, with 24,000 followers, and other Facebook-based projects.
- The webinars feature doctors who share their medical experience with thousands of students at once, on Zoom, with seven episodes so far and 10,000 views.
The Kenh Y khoa channel on YouTube has 2,900 followers with videos produced the group themselves or the community.
The “Online Medicine Ecosystem” project has 23,000 members, ranging from scientific experts, doctors and medical students. Over a successful first fifteen months, the system has been viewed on Google 6.6 million times and accessed 1.1 million times, with one thousand regular users.
“Online Medicine Ecosystem” won first prize at the Youth Drivers for Change Awards 2021
“Medical education in Vietnam is expanding, and the demand is growing rapidly, especially with the Covid-19 pandemic raging and forcing studies completely online,” explained Dr. Thai Bao. “There are currently only a limited number of similar medical systems online, which is why I have created an ecosystem combining education, medicine and technology, on the app, our website, Facebook, YouTube, and Zoom or Meet. Initially we encountered severe difficulties, especially assembling a team of 300 members. Thanks to our volunteers, new medical teaching technology and the hard work of those involved, we gradually gathered a team and implemented the first small projects. During that time, we received much encouragment and advice from the DTU leadership, including Meritorious Teacher Le Cong Co, Dr. Le Nguyen Bao, Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Minh and Dr. Vo Thi Ha Hoa. We are now developing the ecosystem further to provide users with more basic and authentic medical information.”
(Media Center)