A small group of Vietnamese physicians from the Vietnam Ministry of Health visited Whidbey Island this week, their seventh trip here in six years.

Involved in a large, multi-year grant, the physicians are developing a pre-hospital emergency care system for the city of Hanoi and the country of Vietnam.

The delegation stayed in Seattle, visiting Harborview Medical Center and the Seattle Fire Department. What they learned when they came to Whidbey is what they cannot learn in the city of Seattle: how to deliver pre-hospital care to a large rural population. The visiting physicians are some of the most highly regarded in the world and are getting the support they need to develop the pre-hospital system they envision. Welcoming the delegation was I-COM Director Tom Shaughnessy and State Rep. Barbara Bailey.

“You’re getting to see a great system here,” Bailey said, referring to the I-COM dispatch center but with thoughts toward sharing other information. “We are interested in health care issues that affect us all.”

Hanoi is home to more than four million people, lying in the center of the triangular basin of the Red River and its tributaries. Considered the hub of trading, the capital lies in the northern part of Vietnam, an area crisscrossed with numerous lakes and ponds.

The winters are similar to those on Whidbey, cold with drizzling rains, but with the added influences of south and northeast monsoons. The arrangement of rivers and mountains lends itself to a humid, hot climate during the summer. The area around the city is mostly agricultural and sparse, making access to emergency medical care particularly difficult. Most patients do not rely on ambulances to get to the hospital, but find their way by rickshaw or taxi, or are carried.

The two government hospitals in Hanoi are state-of-the-art, with computerized machinery and advanced care, but with little regard to the delivery of pre-hospital care outside the hospital, accounting for hundreds of deaths each week. There is no communication between ambulances and hospitals and no consistent procedures for providing care. The calls are taken in a center where ambulances are radioed or called on cell phones but with personnel operating under different protocols.

“It’s exciting to see such a well-coordinated system,” said Dr. Tran Thi Giang Huong, deputy director general of the Department of International Cooperation. “Knowing we could have a system just like this, and the ability to make our system run as one.”

Shaughnessy offered training manuals, demonstrations and his expertise via e-mail when they returned to Vietnam.

Also in the group was the world’s leading expert on the Avian Flu, Dr. Le Anh Tuan, director of Hanoi Health Services. While the primary purpose was to help develop a dispatch system, other topics were discussed.

“Dr. Le Anh Tuan has the most expertise in the Avian Flu,” said Dr. Paul Zaveruha, medical program director and Whidbey General Hospital board member. “The delegation specifically requested our system, and we are proud it’s a system they would like to emulate. But having built these relationships is beneficial to us too. They will be a great resource if we have to face challenges such as the Avian Flu.”

The next stop for the Vietnamese delegation is Atlanta, where they will spend three days at the Centers for Disease Control, learning about infectious diseases, prevention and data measurement.