USAID’s Improving Access, Curriculum, and Teaching in Medical Education and Emerging Diseases (IMPACT-MED) Alliance brings together a diverse group of university, public sector, and private sector partners to build a strong and effective health workforce in Vietnam able to respond to 21st century priorities and contribute to the health resilience and health security of the country. From March to December 2020, the IMPACT-MED Alliance supported the Vietnam Ministry of Health’s efforts in the prevention and management of COVID-19. The project trained 963 healthcare workers from 194 healthcare facilities, improved epidemic control performance of 30 hospitals across the country, and facilitated 12 online training sessions for 3400 health professional participants on COVID care and treatment. In addition, the IMPACT-MED Alliance partnered with global healthcare company Novartis to train over 5,000 senior medical students from 10 universities on COVID-19 testing procedures, care and treatment, and 520 of them were deployed to aid in COVID-19 response efforts. This included working with the universities to develop materials, train the trainers, develop an online platform to deliver virtual training, and cover costs for logistics and professors at in-person trainings. On December 14, 60 project partners and stakeholders gathered to share results, lessons learned, and provided recommendations for strengthening infection prevention and control to reduce in-hospital transmission and protect healthcare workers.

So What?  By providing training to healthcare workers, senior medical students, and hospitals, USAID helped to fortify Vietnam’s impressive response to COVID-19.