Twinning Partnership Network: A Learning and Experience-Sharing Network Among Health Professionals in Rwanda to Improve Health Services.

We describe the development, implementation, and evaluation of a novel twinning approach: the Twinning Partnership Network (TPN). Twinning is a well-known approach to peer learning that has been used in a variety of settings to build organizational capacity. Although twinning takes many forms, the heart of the approach is that institutions with shared characteristics collaborate via sharing information and experiences to achieve a specific goal.

Meeting Postpartum Women's Family Planning Needs Through Integrated Family Planning and Immunization Services: Results of a Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial in Rwanda.

Objective: The primary objective of this study was to test the effectiveness of integrating family planning service components into infant immunization services to increase modern contraceptive method use among postpartum women.

Methods: The study was a separate sample, parallel, cluster-randomized controlled trial. Fourteen randomly selected primary health facilities were equally allocated to intervention (integrated family planning and immunization services at the same time and location) and control groups (standard immunization services only).

Who chooses vasectomy in Rwanda? Survey data from couples who chose vasectomy, 2010-2012.

Background: Vasectomy is safe and highly effective; however, it remains an underused method of family planning (FP) in Africa. In view of this, three Rwandan physicians were trained in no-scalpel vasectomy with thermal cautery and fascial interposition on the prostatic end as vasectomy trainers in 2010, and this initiative has resulted in over 2900 vasectomy clients from February 2010 to December 2012.

Study Design: This cross-sectional descriptive study describes vasectomy clients (n=316) and their wives (n=300) from 15 randomly selected hospitals in Rwanda.

Strengthening vasectomy services in Rwanda: introduction of thermal cautery with fascial interposition.

Background: Recent developments in vasectomy research indicate that occluding the vas using cautery combined with fascial interposition (FI) significantly lowers failure rates and is an appropriate technology for low-resource settings. We report the introduction of this technique in Ministry of Health (MOH) vasectomy services in Rwanda.

Design: In February 2010, an international vasectomy expert trained three Rwandan physicians to become trainers in no-scalpel vasectomy (NSV) with thermal cautery and FI.