ArticleBMC health services research2026
Medical practice variation in Vietnam: a cross-sectional study.
Article in BMC health services research, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundVariation in clinical care is a recognized global issue and has been associated with poor health outcomes. This study describes the use of the E-Patient Quality Improvement and Standardization (EQIS) platform to assess provider clinical decision-making and to estimate financial waste from unnecessary laboratory and imaging tests in two clinical areas-obstetrics and cardiology-in Vietnam.
methodsThis cross-sectional study included maternal and cardiac health clinicians across all seven hospitals within a private health system in Vietnam. A total of 216 obstetric providers and 71 cardiac care providers participated. Each participant was randomly assigned three simulated e-patient cases relevant to their specialty on the EQIS platform. Overall scores were calculated as the percentage of correct responses for each participant. The number of unnecessary tests and their associated costs were estimated for each case.
resultsOverall, practice quality varied substantially, with mean scores of 73.5 (9.2), 95%CI: 72.3-74.7 for obstetric cases and 80.0 (7.5), 95% CI: 79.6-82.1 for cardiac cases. Across domains, diagnostic performance had the lowest mean score (< 70%) and the greatest variability (SD: 19.0-19.9). Mean scores also varied by provider type, educational level, department, average daily patient volume, hospital, age, and years of experience. Relative to evidence-based recommendations, providers ordered 2.4-2.9 unnecessary tests per case. These patterns were associated with estimated excess costs of 330 to 495 million VND per month for the hospital system.
conclusionsClinical quality varied substantially, and unnecessary testing was common in both obstetric and cardiac care across the seven private hospitals included in this study in Vietnam. The EQIS platform may be a useful tool for assessing clinical practice patterns and estimating unnecessary costs.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.