The Air Defence - Air Force Medical Institute is an intensive medical establishment specialized in scientific research, training in aviation medicine and occupational diseases; recruitment screening and health assessment for military pilots and aviation pilots and personnel; medical examination, first aid, and treatment for officers and soldiers of the Air Defense - Air Force, military units, and people in the area. During 50 years of construction and growth, generations of officers, doctors, physicians, and staff of the Institute have made efforts to overcome difficulties to successfully complete their assigned tasks, making an important contribution to the development of the aviation medicine and the service. With these achievements, the Institute has been awarded by the State with many noble medals and awards.

In recent years, implementing the policy of developing the Air Defence - Air Force straight to modernity has been placing increasing demands on building high-quality human resources,  of which, screening, and assessing pilots’ health, and providing healthcare for soldiers play a very important role. Recognizing that, the Party Committee and the Board of Directors of the Air Defence - Air Force Medical Institute have focused on leading and directing the building of a comprehensively strong Institute so that it will become an intensive and modern medical center of the  Air Defence - Air Force and the Military and successfully complete all assigned tasks.

Closing ceremony of the aviation medic orientation class

To achieve that goal, together with regularly attaching importance to building political strength, the Institute has paid attention to building and developing a contingent of comprehensively capable and knowledgeable doctors and physicians specialized in clinical and aviation medicine. Recruitment health screening, and pilot health assessment and management are especially important to training, combat readiness, and flight safety. In order to well accomplish that task, the Institute has reviewed and developed plans for training and fostering to raise the professional skills of the contingent of officers, physicians, and doctors of aviation medicine and each specialty, of which, special attention has been paid to selecting, planning, training, and building a contingent of leading experts on aviation medicine, highly-skilled technical experts, and young cadres as adjacent sources. The Institute has conducts various forms of training and fostering: Combining on-the-spot training and fostering with sending officers to training courses both at home and abroad; inviting leading doctors and experts to conduct intensive practice training at the Institute; and combining short-term training with basic training and advanced training with provision of knowledge of foreign languages, information technology, law, etc. In addition, the Institute has strengthened the organization of international conferences and seminars, scientific cooperation and professional exchanges, and introduction of aviation medicine equipment and applications in aviation pilot physiology training to countries with advanced aviation medicine, such as Russia, the United States, Japan, Thailand, ... to facilitate doctors and physicians to learn and approach advanced medicine achievements. Remarkably, in recent years, the Institute has collaborated with the Military Medical Academy to well perform the training for the contingent First and Second-Degree specialists, graduates, and specialists in aviation medicine and sent delegations to the Asia-Pacific Nursing Conference, the Asian Heart Conference; and participated in technical training and technology transfer in big hospitals, such as Central Military Hospital 108, Military Hospital 103, Bach Mai Hospital, the National Otorhinolaryngology Hospital of Vietnam, etc. As a result, the professional qualifications and competence of the Institute's doctors and physicians have been increasingly improved, with over 96% of the doctors, pharmacists, and engineers having postgraduate degrees. This is an important human resource to ensure the Institute’s steady development both in the short and long term.

Along with building human resources, the Institute has promoted scientific research and technological application and transfer for professional work, especially in key, specialized, and intensive fields. Implementing the motto of combining treatment with scientific research, over the past time, the Institute has proactively selected the contents and fields of scientific research in line with reality, especially aviation and clinical medicine, in order to improve the quality of pilot recruitment health screening and medical assessment, medical examination, and treatment for patients. Concurrently, it has constantly consolidated, strengthened, and promoted the role of the Scientific Council and adopted policies to care for and create favorable conditions on time, facilities, and funding for research, acceptance, and application of projects and initiatives in practice. Implementing the Protocol entitled “Improving the quality of recruitment screening and medical assessment and management for Vietnamese military pilots in the condition of adapting to modern aircrafts manufactured by the Russian Federation”, the Institute has collaborated with the Institute of Tropical Biomedical Studies (Vietnam-Russia Tropical Center) and the Institute of Labor Medicine (Russian Federal Academy of Medicine) in successfully completed multiple valuable researches and projects to contribute to solving urgent issues on aviation medicine. The Institute’s doctors and physicians have studied and effectively exploited modern technological equipment and successfully implemented several high technologies. Since 2010, the Institute has conducted researches and acceptance of 90 projects and 11 technical initiatives of good quality that have been highly appreciated by the Science Council of the Ministry of Defense.

Training of military pilot cadets in low pressure room

In order to create a healthy medical environment in examination, treatment, and health care for pilots and patients, the Institute has attached importance to educating and enhancing medical ethics for the contingent of medical officers and staff and strictly maintained hospital routines and regimes. Engraved with the words of Uncle Ho: “..., a physician must be also a gentle mother”, the Institute has strengthened grasping, educating, and building a contingent of medical officers and staff with strong political steadfastness and viewpoint, clear ethical professional quality, and always upholding the sense of responsibility, and enthusiasm for patient caring; dynamic, creative at work, and qualified and professional to meet the requirements of tasks. At the same time, it has also disseminated and grasped the duties, honor, and noble responsibilities of the “soldier physicians”; educated and trained the medical ethics; actively reformed administrative procedures and created favorable conditions for patients. The Institute has developed and issued its Code of Conduct based on 12 medical ethics issued by the Ministry of Health and the Soldier Administration Regulations; and promoted the emulation movements and drives, such as: “All for patients, striving to fulfill the assigned tasks”, “Five-good military medical units”, “Military medical soldiers follow Uncle Ho’s teachings”, and 12 medical ethics, etc. As a result, in recent years, the Institute has always fulfilled the tasks of recruitment screening and pilot health assessment, and the quality of pilots' health has been increasingly improved to meet the requirements of training and combat readiness. The quality of medical examination and treatment has been well assured, trusted and highly appreciated by officers and soldiers.

Along with the above contents and solutions, the Institute has also paid attention to investing in facilities and upgrading infrastructure and equipment towards modernity and synchronization. Thanks to the superiors’ attention, in recent years, the Institute has been invested with multiple modern aviation medical equipment to improve the quality of recruitment screening, pilot medical assessment, aviation physiology training, equip skills and physical training for pilots to exploit and promote the features of the new generation aircrafts. Along with that, the Institute has promoted synchronously completing a number of new systems of aviation medicine equipment and continued proposing to invest in and modernize specialized equipment and means to further improve the quality of recruitment screening, pilot health assessment, and aviation physiology training for military pilots. In addition, the Institute has gradually implemented the partial autonomy of finance as directed by the Ministry of Defense to generate revenue for reinvesting in modernizing facilities and equipment and participating in health care and protection for the people and socio-economic development.

Promoting the tradition of 50 years of construction and growth, officers, doctors, and staff of the Air Defence - Air Force Medical Institute continues striving and training towards “deep medical theories, good medical techniques, and clear medical ethics”, to build the Institute into an intensive and modern medical center to contribute to building the “revolutionary, regular, elite, and modern” Air Defence - Air Force.

Senior Colonel, Nguyen Minh Hai, PhD., Director of the Institute