Reproductive health in eastern Europe: a collaborative training project in Romania

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, fundamental political changes in eastern Europe have affected the Soviet-style health care systems that formerly provided basic care for everyone. Many of these systems have collapsed, and the new systems of social insurance that have replaced them often are inadequate. Advanced Training in Reproductive Health in Romania aimed to create an authority in family planning and reproductive health in selected Romanian university centers and to improve training and research capabilities. Initially, the project had 2 main goals: to provide advanced training in reproductive health and family planning to Romanian obstetrics-gynecology specialists from the main university centers-which would allow them to train other physicians (obstetricians, gynecologists, and general practitioners) and medical students-and to develop, test, and finalize specific training materials in Romanian to be used by the new trainers.