Advancing Reproductive Health through Policy-Engaged Research in Abortion Care.

Mifepristone medication abortion was first approved in China and France more than 30 years ago and is now used in more than 60 countries worldwide. It is a highly safe and effective method that has the potential to increase population access to abortion in early pregnancy, closer to home. In both Canada and the United States, the initial regulations for distribution, prescribing, and dispensing of mifepristone were highly restricted.

First-trimester surgical abortion practice in Canada in 2012.

Objective: To evaluate practices among first-trimester surgical abortion facilities and providers in Canada in 2012 and examine the characteristics of the surgical abortion work force.

Design: Self-administered paper or electronic survey adapted from a survey previously fielded in the United States.

Setting: Canada.

Abortion health services in Canada: Results of a 2012 national survey.

Objective: To determine the location of Canadian abortion services relative to where reproductive-age women reside, and the characteristics of abortion facilities and providers.

Design: An international survey was adapted for Canadian relevance. Public sources and professional networks were used to identify facilities.

First-trimester medical abortion practices in Canada: National survey.

Objective: To understand the current availability and practice of first-trimester medical abortion (MA) in Canada.

Design: Using public sources and professional networks, abortion facilities across Canada were identified for a cross-sectional survey on medical and surgical abortion. English and French surveys were distributed by surface or electronic mail between July and November 2013.

Process evaluation of a task-shifting strategy in hormonal contraception: does training translate into practice?

Objectives: Since 2000, the Province of Quebec has experienced a shortage of physicians and a decrease in access to prescription contraceptives. A task-shifting strategy was launched in 2007 to allow trained nurses, in collaboration with community pharmacists, to start healthy women on hormonal contraception for a six-month period without a medical consultation. This study examined the proportion of trained nurses effectively involved in this innovative practice to determine which factors are associated with it.

Task-shifting in the delivery of hormonal contraceptive methods: validation of a questionnaire and preliminary results.

In order to palliate the access problem to effective contraceptive methods in Quebec, Canada, as well as to legitimate nurses' practices in family planning, a collaborative agreement was developed that allow nurses, in conjunction with pharmacists, to give hormonal contraceptives to healthy women of reproductive age for a 6 month period. Training in hormonal contraception was offered to targeted nurses before they could begin this practice. A questionnaire, based on Rogers's theory of diffusion of innovations, was elaborated and validated to specifically evaluate this phenomenon.

The use of depot-medroxyprogesterone acetate in contraception and its potential impact on skeletal health.

Background: In the fall of 2007, the controversy about the contraceptive use of depot-medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) and its potential impact on skeletal health reached the media in the province of Quebec, Canada, thereby becoming a matter of concern for the lay public and physicians. In order to discuss this subject openly, the National Institute of Public Health of Quebec (INSPQ) organized a scientific meeting on February 15, 2008, with targeted physicians delegated by their medical associations in the fields of general practice, obstetrics and gynaecology, rheumatology, orthopaedic surgery, physiatry and endocrinology.

Study Design: Participants reviewed the scientific literature using the study classification method according to the level of evidence, reviewed published guidelines of medical societies and organizations on the subject and reached a consensus position.