IMPLEMENTATION PERIOD: 01 October 2019 – 30 September 2021

DONOR: Grand Challenges Canada – The OPTions Initiative

PROJECT GOAL: To improve access to medical abortion services for women and adolescent from rural Moldova through an innovative telemedicine service

PROJECT OBJECTIVES:

1. To demonstrate the feasibility and safety of medical abortion in Moldova through telemedicine.
2. To fortify the knowledge of the medical community, including primary medical providers, about the provision of medical abortion services
3. To evaluate the satisfaction of women and providers regarding the telemedicine abortion process.

PROJECT ACTIVITIES:

• Develop protocol, data collection instruments, informed consent forms, and other study-related materials.
• Obtain ethics approval from the National Ethics Committee in Moldova.
• Conduct stakeholder meetings to elicit guidance and recommendations for project design.
• Create an informational and user-friendly website for the medical abortion via telemedicine service.
• Elaborate patient education materials and distribute them to pharmacies and medical institutions in order to increase awareness about the medical abortion via telemedicine service and maximize the number of potential beneficiaries.
• Carry out trainings with family doctors and pharmacists focused on the medical abortion via telemedicine service, thus streamlining the referral process.
• Provide medical abortion via telemedicine counselling services to 200 women and adolescents enrolled in the study.
• Analyze the study results and submit them for publication in an international journal.
• Organize a stakeholder meeting to disseminate study findings and begin negotiations to scale up and integrate the service delivery model into the national public healthcare structure.