International Lifestyle Medicine Guidance in Viet Nam: How VLMA Aims to Explain Its Applicability and Limits

International Lifestyle Medicine Guidance in Viet Nam: How VLMA Aims to Explain Its Applicability and Limits

Primary category: Evidence & Clinical Practice

Secondary category: Lifestyle Medicine in Viet Nam

Article type: VLMA Perspective

Last reviewed: October 28, 2026

An international clinical guideline can be scientifically rigorous and still leave important questions unanswered for healthcare professionals working in Viet Nam.

A recommendation may be based on a careful review of research, developed by an experienced international panel, and published by a respected professional organization. Yet the healthcare system, patient population, and resources considered during its development may differ from those in the setting where a healthcare professional is considering its use.

An intervention may require specialist assessment, multidisciplinary support, equipment, or follow-up services that are not available in every healthcare facility. Patients may also have different clinical conditions, preferences, or circumstances from those represented in the supporting studies.

These differences do not necessarily make an international recommendation unsuitable. They do, however, raise questions about its relevance, feasibility, and limitations.

For the Vietnam Lifestyle Medicine Alliance (VLMA), understanding these questions is an important part of connecting scientific evidence with professional learning in Viet Nam.

International clinical guidelines, scientific reviews, and professional recommendations provide valuable foundations for evidence-based Lifestyle Medicine. They help healthcare professionals understand established recommendations, examine emerging evidence, and recognize developments in clinical and public health practice.

However, making these documents available is not the same as helping professionals understand what they mean in the Vietnamese healthcare context.

Through our Knowledge & Evidence initiative, we aim to support that understanding by explaining scientific information accurately, considering its relevance to professional practice, and remaining clear about the limitations of our educational resources.

This article explores how international Lifestyle Medicine guidance can be interpreted responsibly. In particular, it explains why understanding the applicability of an existing recommendation is different from formally developing, adopting, or adapting a clinical guideline.

Our purpose is professional education and knowledge exchange. VLMA does not claim to operate a formal clinical guideline development program or to have authority to issue recommendations that replace applicable Vietnamese professional regulations or institutional requirements.

Understanding What Kind of International Guidance We Are Reading

Healthcare professionals encounter different types of international publications, and the distinctions between them are not always obvious.

Some documents are clinical practice guidelines developed through structured processes involving systematic evidence reviews, expert panels, and explicit judgments about expected benefits, potential harms, and other relevant considerations.

Others are systematic reviews, expert consensus statements, professional position papers, educational frameworks, or scientific commentaries. These publications may all contribute to professional knowledge, but they serve different purposes.

A systematic review aims to summarize available research addressing a defined question. Its findings may help readers understand what is known about an intervention, how confidently its effects can be estimated, and where important uncertainties remain.

A clinical practice guideline uses scientific evidence and other considerations to formulate recommendations intended to inform decisions in specified clinical or public health circumstances.

A professional consensus statement may reflect agreement among experts, although the methods used to reach that agreement and the strength of the supporting evidence can vary.

An educational framework may describe the knowledge and skills expected of healthcare professionals without specifying how an individual patient should be treated.

This distinction matters in Lifestyle Medicine because the field draws on several kinds of scientific and professional guidance.

The Lifestyle Medicine Core Competencies: 2025 Update, published online in October 2025 and subsequently included in the 2026 volume of the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, describes knowledge and skills relevant to evidence-based practice across healthcare disciplines.

It is an important educational reference. However, it is not a condition-specific clinical treatment guideline and does not determine professional licensing or clinical authority in Viet Nam.

Similarly, an international organization's statement supporting healthy nutrition, physical activity, adequate sleep, or other lifestyle-related interventions should not automatically be understood as an instruction for every healthcare professional to provide the same intervention to every patient.

Before interpreting international guidance, it is important to identify who developed the document, what type of publication it is, which population or professional audience it addresses, and what conclusions it was intended to support.

A publication's international reputation does not remove the need to understand its actual purpose and scope.

Strong Scientific Evidence Does Not Answer Every Question About Applicability

Scientific evidence helps establish what is known about an intervention and how confidently its effects can be estimated. Determining whether a recommendation is appropriate in a particular context, however, requires additional judgment.

A healthcare professional may reasonably ask whether the people included in a study resemble those they serve, whether the intervention can be delivered in a comparable way, and whether the expected benefits and harms remain relevant.

Other questions may concern the resources required, patients' values and preferences, feasibility, acceptability, and possible effects on different population groups.

These considerations are central to the GRADE Evidence to Decision frameworks developed by the international GRADE Working Group.

In two papers published in The BMJ in 2016, Alonso-Coello and colleagues described how these frameworks support a structured and transparent approach to moving from research evidence toward healthcare recommendations.

The frameworks consider desirable and undesirable effects, certainty of evidence, values and preferences, resource implications, acceptability, feasibility, and other criteria relevant to the decision being considered.

An important lesson is that evidence about an intervention's effects and the judgment involved in making a recommendation are related but different.

An intervention may have credible evidence of benefit but require resources that are not consistently available in every healthcare setting.

Another intervention may be relatively easy to deliver but still have important uncertainties concerning its effectiveness, safety, or appropriate target population.

Research involving selected patients may also require additional consideration before its findings are applied to people with multiple chronic conditions or circumstances not adequately represented in the studies.

These differences do not necessarily contradict the original evidence. They may instead reveal questions about whether the findings can be applied to another population or healthcare setting under comparable conditions.

This is particularly important for VLMA. Our educational resources should help readers understand what the evidence supports without suggesting that every scientifically credible recommendation can automatically be implemented in the same way throughout Viet Nam.

Understanding the Recommendation Before Considering Its Local Relevance

Before discussing how international guidance may apply in Viet Nam, the original recommendation needs to be understood accurately.

This may seem straightforward, but important qualifications can be lost when guidelines are summarized, translated, or presented in educational materials.

A recommendation may address a particular age group, disease severity, clinical condition, intervention, or healthcare setting. It may depend on prior assessment, professional supervision, defined eligibility criteria, or specific safety considerations.

The wording may also indicate whether the guideline development group considers the recommendation strong or conditional.

Within the GRADE approach, the strength of a recommendation and the certainty of the supporting evidence are related but separate concepts.

A strong recommendation does not necessarily mean that every supporting study provides high-certainty evidence. Likewise, a conditional recommendation does not mean that an intervention is ineffective.

The strength of a recommendation reflects a broader judgment about relevant factors, including the balance between desirable and undesirable effects and the values and preferences of those affected.

A conditional recommendation may indicate that different choices could be reasonable depending on individual circumstances and the decision-making context.

There is also an important legal distinction. The word strong in an international clinical guideline describes the strength of the recommendation within that guideline's methodology. It does not independently make the recommendation legally binding in Viet Nam.

Readers should also consider when the guideline was developed and whether it remains current.

A recent publication is not automatically more reliable than an older one, and an older recommendation is not necessarily obsolete. What matters is whether relevant evidence, professional guidance, or the recommendation itself has changed.

For VLMA, an educational explanation should preserve the intended population, wording, strength, important qualifications, and safety considerations of the original guidance.

Making information easier to understand should not change what the guideline developers concluded.

Why the Vietnamese Healthcare Context Matters

Lifestyle Medicine is closely connected with the circumstances of everyday life.

Nutrition, physical activity, sleep, stress management, avoidance of risky substances, and positive social connections are relevant to health across many populations. However, the opportunities and challenges involved in supporting these behaviors can differ substantially.

Food availability, household practices, working conditions, living environments, family responsibilities, and access to healthcare may influence what is feasible for an individual.

Healthcare organizations also vary in their staffing, professional expertise, referral arrangements, and available services.

An international recommendation developed in a healthcare system with well-established multidisciplinary programs may assume access to professionals or resources that are not consistently available in every Vietnamese healthcare facility.

A structured intervention involving repeated consultations, specialist assessment, or regular monitoring may raise practical questions in settings where these services are organized differently.

At the same time, it would be inappropriate to assume that all Vietnamese healthcare organizations face the same limitations.

A specialist hospital, an outpatient clinic, and a primary healthcare facility may have different capabilities even when located within the same city.

Individual patients may also have different needs.

A recommendation based on research involving generally healthy adults may require additional consideration when the person receiving care has multiple chronic conditions, mobility limitations, or other circumstances affecting clinical safety.

Recognizing these differences does not mean weakening scientific standards or creating unsupported exceptions.

It means understanding that responsible application depends on both the evidence and the circumstances in which an intervention is considered.

The role of professional education is to make those considerations visible without replacing the responsibilities of authorized healthcare practitioners.

An Illustrative Example: Making International Nutrition Guidance Understandable

Consider a hypothetical educational discussion about an international recommendation encouraging a healthier dietary pattern.

The recommendation may be supported by research examining relationships between dietary patterns and important health outcomes.

However, the educational material accompanying the recommendation may use foods, portion examples, or meal preparation practices that are unfamiliar to some Vietnamese households.

A healthcare professional reading the material may reasonably ask how the underlying nutritional principles relate to foods commonly purchased, prepared, or consumed in Viet Nam.

This is a question about interpretation and educational relevance.

It may be useful to explain the scientific principles more clearly or develop examples that readers can recognize. Those examples, however, should remain consistent with the evidence.

A particular food does not become medically necessary simply because it appears in an international guideline illustration.

Equally, replacing that food with a locally familiar alternative should not be presented as nutritionally or clinically equivalent in every respect without appropriate supporting knowledge.

The distinction becomes especially important when guidance concerns people with medical conditions requiring individualized nutritional assessment.

A general educational explanation should not be confused with a therapeutic diet or a patient-specific nutritional prescription.

For VLMA, the appropriate contribution would be to help healthcare professionals understand the original recommendation and recognize where cultural familiarity, clinical circumstances, or additional professional expertise may affect its interpretation.

This example is hypothetical. It does not represent a completed VLMA guideline adaptation or an approved Vietnamese clinical recommendation.

The Way an Intervention Is Delivered Also Matters

Applicability is not only about whether a scientific finding is relevant to a particular population. It also concerns the conditions under which an intervention was studied and delivered.

Some Lifestyle Medicine interventions evaluated in research involve structured programs, trained professionals, repeated contact, ongoing monitoring, and follow-up over defined periods.

These components may contribute to the results reported. If an intervention is delivered differently in another setting, similar outcomes cannot automatically be assumed.

For example, evidence supporting a structured lifestyle intervention does not necessarily establish that a single brief conversation will achieve comparable results.

Likewise, evidence that a particular health behavior is associated with improved health does not prove that every method of encouraging that behavior is equally effective.

The health behavior, the intervention intended to change it, and the way the intervention is delivered are different considerations.

This distinction is relevant when international recommendations are discussed in relation to healthcare services in Viet Nam.

An educational resource should not assume that a particular institution has the professional staff, referral arrangements, or follow-up capacity described in an international guideline.

Nor should practical limitations be interpreted automatically as a failure of the patient or healthcare professional. Some difficulties reflect the organization of care and the resources available.

An educational publication can acknowledge these realities without proposing an alternative clinical pathway or making patient-specific treatment decisions.

Responsibility for clinical assessment, healthcare delivery, and institutional implementation remains with appropriately authorized professionals and healthcare organizations.

For VLMA, explaining the conditions under which an intervention was evaluated can help readers understand both the potential value and the practical limitations of the evidence.

Explaining International Guidance Is Different From Formally Adapting It

International organizations have developed structured methods for adapting clinical guidelines to different settings.

These methods go well beyond translating an existing document or providing informal commentary about its relevance.

In August 2023, the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe published Strengthening Countries' Capacities to Adopt and Adapt Evidence-Based Guidelines: A Handbook for Guideline Contextualization.

The handbook emphasizes that trustworthy recommendations need to be considered in relation to available resources, organizational arrangements, and other relevant aspects of the setting in which they may be implemented.

It explains why translating a guideline into another language is not, by itself, sufficient to contextualize its recommendations.

The handbook also describes a structured approach using GRADE-ADOLOPMENT to develop contextualized recommendations from existing guidance and relevant local evidence.

In 2024, Klugar and colleagues published GRADE Guidance 39 in the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, providing methodological guidance for adopting, adapting, or developing contextualized recommendations based on source guidelines and evidence syntheses.

A corrigendum published in 2025 added an author who had been omitted from the original article's author list. It did not amend the main methodological guidance.

GRADE-ADOLOPMENT recognizes that existing trustworthy recommendations can provide a foundation for further work, potentially avoiding unnecessary duplication of guideline development efforts.

However, formal contextualization requires more than deciding which international recommendations appear relevant.

Depending on its purpose and scope, a formal process may involve defining the questions to be addressed, evaluating source guidelines, reviewing relevant local evidence, considering resources and patient values, managing conflicts of interest, documenting judgments, and establishing appropriate governance and quality assurance arrangements.

The World Health Organization's 2025 Handbook for the Development of Normative Products provides further guidance on evidence-informed development processes, methodological quality, and governance within WHO's normative work.

These international frameworks are valuable methodological references. They should not be presented as mandatory procedures automatically imposed on VLMA.

VLMA may explain how an international recommendation was developed, what contextual factors deserve consideration, or why formal adaptation would require additional work.

That does not mean VLMA has conducted a guideline contextualization process using GRADE-ADOLOPMENT. Nor does it establish that a VLMA publication has been formally approved, adopted, or recognized as a clinical guideline in Viet Nam.

A professional educational commentary and a formally contextualized clinical guideline have different purposes, methods, and responsibilities.

The Legal and Professional Context in Viet Nam

International guidance must be considered alongside the legal framework governing healthcare in Viet Nam.

The Law on Medical Examination and Treatment No. 15/2023/QH15, as amended and reflected in Consolidated Document No. 26/VBHN-VPQH dated February 26, 2026, establishes requirements for healthcare practice, professional responsibilities, and clinical activities.

Article 62 provides that medical examination, the indication of treatment methods, and prescribing must comply with professional and technical regulations issued or recognized by the Minister of Health.

The Law also regulates professional licensing, authorized scopes of practice, and the responsibilities of healthcare practitioners and facilities.

Relevant implementing provisions include Circular No. 32/2023/TT-BYT, as amended, including by Circular No. 25/2026/TT-BYT, which took effect on August 15, 2026.

The applicable requirements must be considered according to the professional activity, the practitioner, and the healthcare setting involved.

An international guideline does not automatically acquire the legal status of a Vietnamese professional technical regulation simply because it was issued by a respected international organization or supported by scientific evidence.

This does not mean that international research or professional recommendations have no legitimate role in healthcare education or evidence-informed practice.

International evidence can inform scientific understanding, professional discussion, and appropriately authorized clinical and organizational decision-making.

The distinction concerns how the evidence is used and the legal responsibilities governing actual healthcare services.

Viet Nam's Law on Disease Prevention No. 114/2025/QH15, effective July 1, 2026, provides a broader framework for disease prevention, including the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases, mental health conditions, and relevant aspects of preventive nutrition.

This policy context is relevant to Lifestyle Medicine. However, the Law does not independently establish Lifestyle Medicine as a separately licensed clinical profession or grant VLMA authority to issue binding treatment recommendations.

VLMA is a physician-led professional platform operated by Vietnam Lifestyle Medicine Alliance Company Limited.

Our role is to support professional education, scientific communication, and knowledge exchange within the organization's lawful scope.

International professional affiliations can support collaboration and access to expertise, but they do not confer Vietnamese regulatory authority to approve, adopt, or enforce clinical guidelines.

Similarly, publishing an educational explanation of international guidance does not replace applicable regulations, institutional responsibilities, or the clinical judgment of appropriately authorized healthcare practitioners.

When Local Evidence Is Limited

International recommendations are often informed by studies conducted across different countries and healthcare systems. These studies may not include Vietnamese participants or institutions.

The absence of Vietnamese research does not automatically make international evidence irrelevant.

Some scientific findings may be applicable across a wide range of populations and settings, depending on the intervention, outcomes, and other relevant characteristics.

However, local evidence may be important for understanding questions that international studies do not fully address.

These may concern healthcare resources, intervention costs, acceptability, professional capacity, implementation barriers, or differences in the populations being served.

Different questions require different sources of information.

Clinical trials and systematic reviews can help clarify intervention effects. Qualitative studies may provide insight into patients' and professionals' experiences, acceptability, and practical difficulties.

Health system data may help explain workforce availability, service organization, or resource requirements.

These sources contribute different kinds of evidence. None should be expected to answer every question about applicability.

For VLMA, responsible interpretation should avoid two opposite assumptions: that international evidence is unsuitable simply because it was generated elsewhere, or that it automatically establishes every detail of implementation in Viet Nam.

Where relevant questions remain unanswered, those uncertainties should be acknowledged.

Such questions may eventually inform professional discussion, research, or service evaluation. However, identifying uncertainty does not automatically establish a national research priority or create authority to undertake a clinical research project.

Any future research or implementation activity would require appropriate methodological, institutional, legal, and ethical arrangements according to its nature.

Our immediate educational objective is to help healthcare professionals understand what can reasonably be concluded from available information and what remains uncertain.

Communicating Guidance Without Changing Its Meaning

International guidance can be misrepresented even when the original document is reliable.

A recommendation may be shortened until its qualifications disappear. A technical term may be translated inaccurately. A statement about population-level prevention may be presented as an individualized treatment instruction.

An intervention supported by evidence in selected circumstances may also be described as universally effective.

These problems matter because educational materials can influence how healthcare professionals interpret scientific information.

For VLMA, responsible communication should preserve the original source's intended meaning and avoid extending conclusions beyond the evidence.

A useful explanation may identify the issuing organization, intended population, relevant recommendation, strength of recommendation, important safety considerations, and uncertainties affecting interpretation.

It may then discuss contextual questions relevant to Vietnamese healthcare without claiming that those questions have already been resolved.

Clear separation between source recommendations and editorial commentary is particularly important.

Readers should be able to recognize which statements come from the original guideline and which reflect an educational explanation or professional perspective.

The limitations of Lifestyle Medicine interventions must also remain visible.

Although lifestyle-related interventions can contribute to the prevention and management of many conditions, they are not universal substitutes for necessary medications, procedures, or other established medical care.

Some interventions require individualized assessment, attention to existing treatment, or involvement from professionals with particular expertise.

An educational publication should not encourage readers to overlook these requirements.

The use of international materials also raises copyright and licensing considerations.

Public accessibility does not automatically authorize unrestricted reproduction, translation, or adaptation of text, tables, figures, or other protected content.

In Viet Nam, applicable intellectual property requirements include the Law on Intellectual Property, as amended, including by Law No. 131/2025/QH15, which took effect on April 1, 2026.

The permissions and attribution required for a particular resource depend on its copyright status, licensing terms, intended use, and relevant legal provisions.

VLMA should respect these requirements when preparing educational resources, while distinguishing its own explanations from the work of the original guideline developers.

Clear communication is therefore both a scientific and professional responsibility.

How VLMA Aims to Add Value

VLMA does not need to issue new clinical guidelines to make a useful contribution to evidence-based Lifestyle Medicine.

There is already substantial international research and professional guidance addressing areas relevant to the field.

An important opportunity is to help healthcare professionals engage with that information critically and understand its relevance and limitations.

A VLMA educational resource could explain why a particular guideline was developed, whom it addresses, what its recommendations mean, and which conditions may affect their applicability.

It could also clarify unfamiliar terminology, distinguish research findings from clinical recommendations, or identify uncertainties that deserve further professional consideration.

Where appropriate, contributions from professionals with relevant subject-matter expertise may help improve the accuracy and relevance of such explanations.

However, participation by an expert should not automatically be described as formal endorsement of a guideline or approval of a VLMA publication.

Similarly, collaboration with an international institution does not mean that an educational resource has been officially adopted for clinical use in Viet Nam.

Transparency should remain central as this work develops.

Readers should be able to distinguish original guidance from VLMA commentary, understand the intended professional audience, and recognize when a question requires consultation of the source document or other applicable professional requirements.

These principles are consistent with the purpose of our Knowledge & Evidence initiative: supporting scientifically responsible professional communication without overstating organizational authority.

They describe the direction we aim to follow, not a claim that VLMA already operates a formal guideline appraisal committee, a guideline endorsement program, or a validated contextualization process.

If opportunities arise to participate in a formal guideline-related project with eligible healthcare institutions, professional organizations, or competent authorities, the responsibilities, methods, and approvals applicable to that project would need to be established separately.

For now, the priority is to make reliable international information more understandable and relevant while respecting the limits of professional education.

International Guidance in Viet Nam: Our Commitment

Lifestyle Medicine continues to develop through international scientific research, professional education, and clinical experience.

Clinical guidelines, public health recommendations, and professional frameworks provide important sources of knowledge. However, understanding an international recommendation requires more than recognizing that it comes from a respected organization.

Healthcare professionals need to consider the population addressed, the supporting evidence, the circumstances under which an intervention was evaluated, and the limits of the recommendation.

They must also recognize the clinical and legal responsibilities that apply when care is delivered in Viet Nam.

For VLMA, connecting scientific evidence with professional practice begins by taking these distinctions seriously.

We do not aim to establish a parallel system of clinical guidelines or replace Vietnamese professional technical regulations. We also do not believe international evidence should be dismissed simply because it was developed outside Viet Nam.

Our intended contribution is to help healthcare professionals understand what international guidance says, how it was developed, what supports its recommendations, and where contextual considerations or uncertainties remain.

This requires accurate interpretation, appropriate expertise, scientific independence, and transparency about what our publications can and cannot establish.

It also requires recognizing that some questions cannot be resolved through an educational article alone.

Clinical decisions remain the responsibility of authorized healthcare practitioners working within applicable professional and institutional requirements. Formal guideline development, adoption, and adaptation involve separate methods, governance, and responsibilities.

As VLMA develops its Knowledge & Evidence resources, we hope to contribute to better-informed professional discussion while maintaining these boundaries.

For VLMA, connecting international guidance with Vietnamese healthcare is not about turning every global recommendation into a local rule. It is about helping professionals understand the evidence, recognize the circumstances in which a recommendation may be relevant, and remain clear about its limitations and their own responsibilities.

That is one practical way we aim to support the responsible connection between scientific evidence and Lifestyle Medicine practice in Viet Nam.

Selected References

1. Vietnam Lifestyle Medicine Alliance. Knowledge & Evidence: How We Work With Evidence. VLMA; 2026.

2. World Health Organization, Regional Office for Europe. Strengthening Countries' Capacities to Adopt and Adapt Evidence-Based Guidelines: A Handbook for Guideline Contextualization. Copenhagen: World Health Organization; August 14, 2023. ISBN: 978-92-8-906002-8.

3. Klugar M, Lotfi T, Darzi AJ, et al. GRADE guidance 39: Using GRADE-ADOLOPMENT to adopt, adapt or create contextualized recommendations from source guidelines and evidence syntheses. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology. 2024;174:111494. doi:10.1016/j.jclinepi.2024.111494.

4. Klugar M, Lotfi T, Darzi AJ, et al. Corrigendum to GRADE guidance 39: Using GRADE-ADOLOPMENT to adopt, adapt or create contextualized recommendations from source guidelines and evidence syntheses. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology. 2025;187:111969. doi:10.1016/j.jclinepi.2025.111969.

5. Alonso-Coello P, Schünemann HJ, Moberg J, et al. GRADE Evidence to Decision frameworks: A systematic and transparent approach to making well informed healthcare choices. 1: Introduction. BMJ. 2016;353. doi:10.1136/bmj.i2016.

6. Alonso-Coello P, Oxman AD, Moberg J, et al. GRADE Evidence to Decision frameworks: A systematic and transparent approach to making well informed healthcare choices. 2: Clinical practice guidelines. BMJ. 2016;353. doi:10.1136/bmj.i2089.

7. World Health Organization. WHO Handbook for Guideline Development. 2nd ed. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2014. ISBN: 978-92-4-154896-0.

8. World Health Organization. WHO Handbook for the Development of Normative Products. Volume I: Overarching Principles. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2025. ISBN: 978-92-4-010816-5.

9. World Health Organization. WHO Handbook for the Development of Normative Products. Volume II: Content Development. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2025. ISBN: 978-92-4-010966-7.

10. Rea BL, Cheema S, Lanza S, et al. Lifestyle Medicine Core Competencies: 2025 Update. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine. 2026;20(3):443–451. First published online October 28, 2025. doi:10.1177/15598276251379821.

11. National Assembly of Viet Nam. Law on Medical Examination and Treatment No. 15/2023/QH15, as amended. Consolidated Document No. 26/VBHN-VPQH, February 26, 2026.

12. Ministry of Health of Viet Nam. Circular No. 32/2023/TT-BYT Detailing Certain Articles of the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment, as amended.

13. Ministry of Health of Viet Nam. Circular No. 25/2026/TT-BYT Amending and Supplementing Provisions of Several Ministry of Health Circulars, Including Circular No. 32/2023/TT-BYT. June 30, 2026. Effective August 15, 2026.

14. National Assembly of Viet Nam. Law on Disease Prevention No. 114/2025/QH15. Effective July 1, 2026.

15. National Assembly of Viet Nam. Law No. 131/2025/QH15 Amending and Supplementing Certain Articles of the Law on Intellectual Property. Effective April 1, 2026.

Editorial and Professional Scope Note

This article presents the organizational perspective and intended educational direction of the Vietnam Lifestyle Medicine Alliance as of October 2026. It is intended for professional information, education, and knowledge exchange. It does not constitute a clinical practice guideline, an officially adopted or adapted international guideline, individualized medical advice, a clinical protocol, or an official interpretation of Vietnamese law.

References to international recommendations, guideline contextualization, evidence interpretation, professional contributions, and potential collaboration describe established scientific methods or VLMA's intended educational approach, as applicable. They do not imply that VLMA has completed a formal guideline development or GRADE-ADOLOPMENT process, established a guideline approval committee, or obtained regulatory authority to issue clinical recommendations on behalf of Vietnamese authorities.

VLMA is a physician-led professional platform operated by Vietnam Lifestyle Medicine Alliance Company Limited. It is not a healthcare service provider, medical licensing authority, or regulatory body. Its educational resources do not replace applicable Vietnamese professional and technical regulations, institutional requirements, authorized clinical judgment, or the responsibilities of healthcare practitioners.

Any future formal guideline development, adoption, adaptation, clinical implementation, or institutional collaboration must comply with applicable Vietnamese legal, professional, methodological, ethical, copyright, and institutional requirements.