University Exchange Experience: Vietnam, a country in rapid transition Camia P.*, Minh HV.^​, Vân Phạm T.^, Visciarelli S.*, Ciorba V.*, Sarli L.*, Pasquarella C.*, Signorelli C.* * Università degli Studi di Parma, ^Hanoi Medical University - Institute for Preventive Medicine and Public Health INTRODUCTION Vietnam has become in the last two decades a middle-income country, shifting from one of the poorest nations to one of the fastest growing economies It has made remarkable progress in improving the health status of its people, achieving or even exceeding the majority of health related UN Millennium Development Goals, eg the under-five mortality rate was reduced considerably from 58 per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 16 in 2011 However though, the health care system still has to face many difficulties and challenges such as epidemiological transition, health inequalities, universal health insurance, double burden of infection and Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs) (from 56% in 1990 to 72% in 2010 of total deaths) According to the protocol of international university cooperation between the University of Parma and Hanoi Medical University (HMU), a month university exchange was planned in November 2013 in order to understand the Vietnamese Health System, focusing on Primary Health Care System (PHC) and NCDs prevention and control strategies METHODS The data was collected by literature review, including policies and research papers, health facilities at district and commune level site visit and consultation with HMU’s professors and both traditional and modern physicians RESULTS Vietnam Health System is a mixed public-private provider system based on level of service delivery: ​central (central/regional hospitals, research institutes) managed directly by the Ministry of Health (MoH); ​provincial (general/specialized hospitals and preventive care centers) and district ​(general district hospitals and district preventive care centers) managed by Provincial Health Departments (PHD); ​commune managed by the district health centers PHC includes commune health stations and district health center, PHD and the MoH have programs and offices to support primary care delivery at district and commune levels Five-Year Health Sector Development Plan 2011-2015 identifies as one objective PHC strengthening through prevention and management of NCDs to assure to every people access to quality basic health care services, continuity and comprehensiveness of care Five national target projects on the prevention and control of NCDs (hypertension, diabetes, cancer, COPD and asthma, mental health) were organized and implemented Family physician is asked to achieve a key role in PHC in order to improve the quality of medical examination and treatment at the primary level, following the March 2001 MOH Decree which established family medicine as a first-degree medical specialty with the aim of staffing every commune health center with a family physician To date, the grassroots health network (district and commune level) has been upgraded with medical equipment and health manpower, although primary care capacity for NCDs prevention and management is still weak, causing overcrowding in hospitals at higher levels and inequity in health care CONCLUSION Though the Vietnamese Health System progressed significantly, more PHC-oriented strategies development are required to reform PHC in line with WHO guideline and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the health system The experience reported underlines the importance of international exchange from a professional and human perspective It helps to gain a global view of Public Health issues, view future challenges differently and solve problems from a different perspective Such experience should be included in the Public Health specialist curricula