On April 1, in the capital of Azerbaijan, the Conference “Safe abortion, the latest WHO recommendations regarding telemedicine” was held. The partners of this scientific event were: the Ministry of Health of Azerbaijan, the National Institute of Mother and Child Care, Gynuity Health Projects and RHTC.
The Conference was attended by 70 people interested and professionally involved in this field, suppliers and decision-makers in the medical field, distributors of pharmaceutical products, representatives of NGOs promoting women’s rights.
During the Conference, Dr. Gulnara Rzaeva presented the most current data on abortions in Azerbaijan, she also reported the current situation and the urgent problems that have been identified in this sphere of medical services.
During the event, the national coordinator also presented the Report with reference to the Pilot Study coordinated by Gynuity on Medical Abortion via telemedicine. From the report it can be concluded that medical abortion has a high effectiveness (98%), has low level of complications and high level of women’s satisfaction, this type of abortion is more convenient and confidential.
The report on the latest WHO recommendations, with an emphasis on Medical Abortion through Telemedicine, was presented by Dr. Rodica Comendant, RHTC director.
At the same time, during the Conference, the Report on the formative research was presented, the research was performed by RHTC and local partners in the project, sponsored by GCC.
The data discussed and reported during the Conference showed that most women believe they can self-manage some aspects of Medical Abortion, but still want to have personal contact with drug providers, also 50% of drug providers and 50% of policy makers believe that telemedicine is feasible for introduction in Azerbaijan.
In conclusion, for the successful implementation of Medical Abortion via telemedicine in Azerbaijan, the participants proposed the following steps:
- Updating the national protocol on safe abortion;
- Performing an information campaign for women, women’s NGOs;
- Creating a website with comprehensive information on medical abortion;
- Consolidating the capacity of family doctors in counselling medical abortion through telemedicine;
- Increasing the level of motivation of the providers of medicines;
- Continuing advocacy efforts on the inclusion of telemedicine in service delivery;
More details on the information presented at the Conference can be found in the Report attached below.