The first virtual network initiation meeting took place on December 18, 2024, hosted by the Dong Thap Department of Health and chaired by Deputy Director Lam Thi Ngoc Kim. Participants included Dong Thap General Hospital, Sa Dec General Hospital, Thap Muoi Regional General Hospital, and three district health centers: Cao Lanh, Thanh Binh, and Lap Vo. This demonstrates the strong commitment of local healthcare leadership and hospitals in Dong Thap to effectively address AMR challenges and improve healthcare outcomes.
Representatives from NHTD, OUCRU, and the Dong Thap Department of Health provided guidance on the “Evaluating Antimicrobial Stewardship strategies and capacity building through Participatory Action Research and a Network approach in Vietnam (ASPARNet)” project during the meeting. Key topics included research operations, project objectives, capacity-building for AMS implementation, microbiological testing, sample transportation, patient surveys, and initial evaluation activities in Dong Thap hospitals. Discussions also focused on supporting sites in extracting and applying antibiotic usage data for planning AMS program implementation.
Funded by the UKRI Medical Research Council, the ASPARNet project aims to evaluate the impact of AMS programs across hospital networks. The study will analyze antibiotic usage, patient clinical outcomes, feasibility, cost-effectiveness, acceptability, equity, sustainability, and scalability of AMS networks. It will also investigate the program’s impact on the prevalence of antimicrobial-resistant gram-negative bacteria, including carbapenem-resistant strains, and identify opportunities to support AMS in specific hospital contexts.