Institutionalizing the use of operations research at universities and service providing institutions August 1 1996 - July 31 1998. Final report.

This report focuses on institutionalizing the use of Operations Research (OR) at universities and service providing institutions. The project aimed to disseminate the OR methodology among reproductive health/family planning (RH/FP) professionals and university professors in Peru. Specifically it aimed to strengthen the institutional capacity of agencies providing RH/FP services to carry out OR projects and local universities to offer high quality OR courses for targeted audiences. The OR institutionalization model consisted of an OR Workshop in which multidisciplinary teams of health personnel and university professors are exposed to concepts and cases and design their own research proposals assisted by experts. The studies included an experiment that evaluated the use of an interactive pamphlet to increase the use of reproductive health services at a family planning clinic; a test focusing on the use of three models of home visits to reduce the unmet need for contraception; and an assessment of contraceptive continuation using life tables. Overall an indicator of success of the project is accounted for in the request to replicate the workshop in priority regions of Perus Ministry of Health.