On Saturday, October 11, 2025, VinUni successfully hosted a seminar under The Research Excellence Series, attracting a large audience of faculty members, students, researchers, healthcare professionals, and medical enterprises from across Vietnam. The event provided a comprehensive perspective on how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming modern medicine — where data, technology, and human expertise converge to enable accurate, compassionate, and data-driven clinical decisions.

 

Opening the program, Dr. Pham Huy Hieu presented an overview of VinUni’s digital health research ecosystem, where AI is being developed as a core infrastructure for the future of healthcare. According to Dr. Hieu, the ultimate goal of these efforts is to create trustworthy AI — systems that can explain, validate, and collaborate with clinicians in every decision-making process. “AI will not replace humans,” he emphasized, “but it will help doctors make faster, more accurate decisions — and sometimes uncover answers that medicine has yet to reveal.”

 

Dr. Hieu then guided the audience through the journey of bringing AI “out of the laboratory and into real life” with a series of research projects being conducted at VinUni. In early disease detection, his team is developing a stroke detection system using only facial and voice data — a model currently being tested with real-world datasets. In cellular analysis, the Virtual Staining project, in collaboration with Seoul National University, enables digital staining of microscope images using GAN and Latent Diffusion Models, helping to shorten diagnostic workflows and reduce research costs. Meanwhile, the Cardiac Digital Twin and Edge AI for Maternal Health projects are introducing new approaches in cardiology and obstetrics — from simulating 4D heart motion for improved diagnosis to creating wearable AI devices for continuous fetal heart monitoring and early anomaly detection.

Continuing the session, Prof. Tran Trung Dung, MD, PhD, CEO of Vinmec Healthcare System and Director of the Orthopedic Residency Program at VinUni, offered a strategic perspective on transforming healthcare models in the data era. He emphasized that a modern healthcare system should be structured across three interconnected layers: primary care, specialized care, and innovation and research — where new methods and technologies are continually developed to enhance care quality. When the primary care layer functions effectively, most patients can be detected and managed at the community level, reducing hospital overload and optimizing national healthcare resources.

 

A highlight of Prof. Dung’s talk was the introduction of “Health Avatar”, a visionary project being developed by Vinmec — a digital twin of each individual within the modern healthcare ecosystem. The Health Avatar is envisioned as a personalized smart health assistant, capable of continuously updating and reflecting one’s physical condition in real time. The system integrates data from electronic medical records, wearable devices, biosensors, mobile applications, and even smart vehicles, creating a holistic and “living” health profile. Through this, users can receive early alerts about abnormal health indicators, personalized check-up or test recommendations, periodic health reports sent directly to their doctors, and automatic emergency notifications to hospitals or family members when necessary.

 

In the long run, the Health Avatar will not only empower individuals to proactively manage their own health but will also contribute to developing a valuable national health data resource for research, forecasting, and policymaking — moving toward a smart, sustainable healthcare ecosystem where prevention is as vital as treatment.

Following the presentations, the Q&A session was lively and engaging, with thought-provoking questions from students and young doctors about real-world challenges in implementing AI in hospitals, the reliability of AI models in clinical practice, and identifying practical solutions suited to their own healthcare institutions.

The seminar concluded on a high note, filled with research energy and inspiration. The insights shared by Dr. Pham Huy Hieu and Prof. Tran Trung Dung, MD, PhD offered participants a multidimensional understanding of AI’s role in modern medicine, while also reflecting a shared vision of connecting science, technology, and humanity to build a smarter, more compassionate, and sustainable healthcare future for Vietnam.

 

If you missed this seminar, don’t forget to follow VinUniversity’s Research website to stay updated on upcoming sessions in The Research Excellence Series — featuring cutting-edge topics and distinguished guest speakers from Vietnam and around the world.