The Republic of Moldova launches the National Colposcopy Network to enhance cervical cancer screening and prevention in the country. The official inauguration ceremony took place at the National Colposcopy Referral Centre located at the Research Institute for Mother and Child Health Care on November 2, 2023.
The national network, which will provide women with better access to colposcopy services for early detection of precancerous lesions and cervical cancer, consists of 12 colposcopy offices across the country. RENAM, the National Research and Education Network of Moldova, assists the network by providing technical support for video conferencing.
The hospitals of the districts of Soroca, Comrat, Cahul, Causeni, Ungheni, Orhei, Drochia, and Ceadir-Lunga, as well as Balti Clinical Hospital, have been supplied with the necessary new advanced medical equipment to perform colposcopy. For the Chisinau hospitals, the Research Institute for Mother and Child Health Care, the Institute of Oncology and the Municipal Clinical Hospital “Gheorghe Paladi”, capacity and competency have considerably increased. The colposcopy equipment was procured by UNFPA Moldova with the support of the UK Government.
Specialists from the National Colposcopy Referral Centre will guide and provide online support to gynaecologists operating in the regional offices through a video conferencing system based on the BigBlueButton platform provided by RENAM.
The BigBlueButton platform is a complex solution that uses WebRTC technology. It allows multiple images from one location to be viewed and communicated online, and provides video guidance for the “in vivo” process during the colposcopy examination. The platform also ensures the security of the data transmitted online by using encryption protocols: DTLS (Datagram Transport Layer Security) for text in chats and SRTP (Secure Real-time Transport Protocol) for video-audio.
The medical personnel underwent three training sessions to learn how to use the technology. The sessions were conducted in test mode, simulating the real conditions as closely as possible.
The special collaboration with RENAM, through the availability of advanced services and technologies, has made a significant contribution towards the creation and the smooth operation of the National Colposcopy Network.
Video conferencing support is one of the services offered by RENAM to research and education organisations in the Republic of Moldova and is currently used by several public institutions connected to the Moldovan NREN.
The video recording of the event is available on Privesc.Eu Moldova.
