Seventy-five years ago, following Decree No. 234/SL dated August 20, 1948, by President Ho Chi Minh, the Vietnamese Military Medical School (predecessor of the Vietnam Military Medical University) was established. On March 10, 1949, the school inaugurated its first course. Since then, March 10 every year has become the Traditional Day of the Vietnam Military Medical University.

Doctors at Le Huu Trac National Burn Hospital (VMMU) perform surgery to connect arteries and veins for patients

Over the past 75 years, with the care and leadership of the Party, the State, the Army, directly led by the Central Military Commission, the Ministry of National Defense, generations of officials, lecturers, staff, trainees, and soldiers of VMMU have overcome all difficulties and challenges to build the University into a prestigious center for medical education, research, and military medicine both within the military and the country as a whole.

Throughout revolutionary periods, despite undergoing various name changes, the central and enduring political mission of VMMU has been to train, conduct scientific research, and provide medical treatment and healthcare for the military and the people, meeting the requirements of training missions, readiness for combat, and victorious battles. In its early days, despite rudimentary facilities, lack of teachers, and amidst fierce war conditions, the officials, teachers, staff, and soldiers of VMMU strived to overcome all difficulties and challenges, fulfilling both training tasks and participating in serving to ensure the battlefield, meeting the demands for additional medical personnel for military units. During the resistance wars against French colonialism and US imperialism, in the national salvation, and homeland defense wars, adhering to the motto of “closely following the battlefield, closely following the army,” the doctors and medical teams of the school participated in most major campaigns, contributing alongside the entire nation to victory.

In the era of renovation, VMMU has consistently and effectively implemented resolutions and directives of the Party, the Central Military Commission, and the Ministry of National Defense regarding education and training in the new context, gradually building a regular, modern university integrated with the national education and training system. Training work has made remarkable progress; the scale and forms of training have been expanded, with many levels of education offered.

Over the past 75 years, VMMU has trained over 100,000 medical officers and personnel for the Army and the State, including more than 1,200 doctors, over 10,000 masters, resident physicians, and specialists of levels 1 and 2. Additionally, the  university has trained 623 doctors from ethnic minority communities in the five provinces of the Central Highlands; over 2,000 doctors for the nine provinces of the Mekong Delta; 200 doctors for the provinces of Bac Kan and Yen Bai; and trained 1,221 students for the neighboring countries of Laos and Cambodia, many of whom have returned to their countries after graduation to hold important positions in the healthcare sector.

For these outstanding achievements, VMMU has been honored by the Party and the State with numerous prestigious awards, including the Gold Star Order, two Ho Chi Minh Medals, three Hero of the People’s Armed Forces titles, two Independence Medals, three Military Exploit Medals, two Battle Achievement Medals, five Labor Medals, two Fatherland Protection Medals, the Second Class Isala Order of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, and the Sahametrei Medal of the Royal Kingdom of Cambodia, among many other esteemed awards.

In the coming time, VMMU will continue to thoroughly grasp and effectively implement the resolutions and directions on education and training as set forth by the 13th National Party Congress and the 11th Party Congress of the Military; innovate education and training in the military with various renewal projects. The focus will be on innovating and improving the quality of education and training comprehensively, from admissions, curriculum development, and faculty development to innovative teaching methods and cooperation in education and training; from regular training to refresher and continuous training to enhance the capacity of personnel for the entire sector, best meeting the healthcare needs of the military and the people in the new situation.

The university has completed the construction, evaluation, and issuance of undergraduate and postgraduate training programs based on competency and output standards, suitable for the practical conditions of the unit and current trends in education and training innovation; it is fully qualified to organize training program accreditation. Adhering to the principle that “the training quality of the institution is the combat readiness of the unit,” VMMU has innovated the content and organization of end-of-course exercises closely aligned with the objectives, combat requirements, and duties of military doctors at battalion level.

It can be affirmed that VMMU, with its political mission, has comprehensively and effectively implemented innovative measures to improve the quality of training, aiming to train high-quality human resources to build and develop the military medical sector to meet the healthcare needs of the military and the people, contributing to the construction of a regular, elite, modern army, firmly defending the Fatherland ■

LIEUTENANT GENERAL, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, PEOPLE’S DOCTOR NGUYEN XUAN KIEN – Director of the Vietnam Military Medical University

TRANSLATOR: NGUYEN NGOC ANH