University Medical Center Ho Chi Minh City has become the first public healthcare institution in Vietnam to earn the international AirwaysCARE certification from the Global Allergy and Asthma Excellence Network (GA²LEN).

University Medical Center Ho Chi Minh City has officially been recognized by the Global Allergy and Asthma Excellence Network (GA²LEN) as an AirwaysCARE (Allergic Rhinitis and Asthma Centers of Reference and Excellence) center. This event marks a significant milestone as the hospital becomes the first public hospital in Vietnam to join a network of specialized medical centers meeting international standards in the comprehensive management and treatment of allergic respiratory diseases.

AirwaysCARE and GA²LEN: A Strict Global Accreditation Standards System GA²LEN (Global Allergy and Asthma Excellence Network) is a leading global clinical research network and academic collaboration in the field of allergy and asthma, operating under the auspices of European Union (EU) framework programs. Within this ecosystem, the AirwaysCARE certification is established as a rigorous international standard designed to synchronize the capabilities of healthcare facilities in diagnosing, classifying clinical phenotypes, and long-term management of asthma and allergic rhinitis.

GA²LEN's accreditation system comprehensively audits clinical operational capabilities through core pillars:

• Standardization of Clinical Pathways: The ability to uniformly translate and apply global treatment guidelines such as GINA (Global Initiative for Asthma) and ARIA (Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma) into clinical practice conditions in Vietnam, ensuring consistency in every treatment decision.

• Proactive Patient Monitoring and Management Systems: The capability to establish continuous disease control assessment tools, early prediction of critical exacerbation risks, and reduction of preventable emergency hospitalizations.

• Scientific Research and Continuing Education Capacities: The hospital's leading role in conducting practical research, technology transfer, and updating professional knowledge for the primary healthcare network.

Strategic Significance for the Public Healthcare Quality Management Model Amid rising rates of allergic respiratory diseases driven by urban environmental pollution, a frontline public hospital like University Medical Center Ho Chi Minh City achieving AirwaysCARE standards delivers immense practical value.

A key characteristic of a top-tier public hospital in Vietnam is handling an extremely high daily patient volume. Therefore, successfully maintaining an international standardized process like AirwaysCARE is testament to outstanding clinical governance. This achievement affirms that University Medical Center Ho Chi Minh City not only optimizes treatment efficiency on a large scale but also strictly controls patient safety down to the finest detail—from reception and definitive diagnosis via advanced respiratory functional diagnostics to the formulation of personalized treatment regimens.

The core objective of standardizing according to AirwaysCARE criteria is delivering tangible clinical value to patients, families, and medical staff:

1. Personalized Treatment Regimens: Patients with asthma and allergic rhinitis accessing services at University Medical Center Ho Chi Minh City have their clinical phenotypes identified. This process helps limit drug overuse (particularly systemic corticosteroids, which carry severe side effects) while optimizing personalized treatments and selecting biologic therapies for severe asthma patients.

2. Long-Term Disease Management and Respiratory Function Stability: Establishing a friendly interaction between medical staff and patients. Through health education programs tailored to Vietnam's context and asthma action plans, patients enhance their self-management capacity at home, recognizing early warning signs to coordinate timely responses. This effectively manages the disease and maintains respiratory function at its best level.

3. Severe Asthma Management: Severe asthma cases account for a small proportion yet consume extensive medical resources and carry a high mortality rate. Applying AirwaysCARE standards helps University Medical Center Ho Chi Minh City optimize management processes according to rigorous international benchmarks:

   • Categorizing asthma patients into special groups for targeted treatment: Through advanced respiratory functional diagnostics and biological assays (such as FeNO measurement, total IgE quantification, blood or sputum eosinophil counts), severe asthma patients are accurately classified by inflammatory mechanism.

   • Application and personalization of biologic therapies: For severe asthma cases uncontrolled despite optimized treatment, University Medical Center Ho Chi Minh City pioneers access to and prescription of targeted biologic treatments (such as anti-IgE, anti-TSLP, anti-IL-5, etc.).

4. Multidisciplinary Consultations: Establishing a routine consultation process among experts in Clinical Immunology-Allergy, Pulmonology, and Otorhinolaryngology (for cases with coexisting chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps). This coordination facilitates comprehensive assessment of comorbidities, resolution of risk factors, and swift consensus on treatment decisions.

Achieving the AirwaysCARE certification from GA²LEN affirms the strong commitment of University Medical Center Ho Chi Minh City to global medical integration. This serves as a vital foundation for the hospital to further promote multi-center scientific research projects, pioneer the application of advanced medical breakthroughs, and sustainably pursue the goal of safeguarding community health and elevating quality of life.