Building on the national celebration of Vietnam’s first HIV patients to receive antiretroviral (ARV) drugs covered by Social Health Insurance (SHI) that took place in early March, this week, the Vietnam Administration of HIV/AIDS Control (VAAC) and Vietnam Social Security Agency (VSS) launched a national dashboard to track the number of patients receiving ARVs covered by SHI in order to measure the transition process. The deployment of the dashboard is the result of a year-long advocacy and technical assistance effort by USAID’s Sustainable HIV Response from Technical Assistance (SHIFT) activity. As of today, the tool has tracked 4,467 (2,852 male, 1,615 female) patients receiving SHI-covered ARVs from 25 provinces.

So What? This dashboard will ensure that VAAC, VSS, and international donors are able to monitor the transition from donor-supported to SHI-covered ARV drugs and quickly address issues so that patients do not experience interruptions in their antiretroviral treatment.