Turn.io recently worked with Dimagi to support the development of a chatbot for Ipas that provides accurate information about abortion, contraception and emergency contraception to women, in a private way.
Called Nisa, the reproductive healthcare chatbot is playing an increasingly important role in the work being done by Ipas - an international reproductive justice organisation focused on expanding access to abortion and contraception.
Currently active on five continents, Ipas works to make abortion and contraception widely available, to connect people with vital reproductive health information so they can access services, and to advocate for legal, accessible abortion.
The development of the Nisa chatbot comes against a background of abortion self-care—an abortion with pills obtained without a prescription—becoming more common globally.
Because little is known about access to postabortion contraception for women and girls who access medical abortion this way Ipas has been developing scalable, evidence-based interventions to increase uptake and continuation rates of contraception after self-use of medical abortion among women and adolescent girls.
The Nisa project is being conducted in the DRC and Kenya. It is being overseen by technical advisory groups, which include pharmacy associations and advisors with expertise in launching new products in the marketplace.
Formative research was conducted between 2018-2019 to inform intervention design in each country. The formative research used qualitative research methods, including in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and participant observations. The focus was on understanding the contraceptive journey of women and girls who have self-managed an abortion with pills, as well as their needs and preferences for contraceptive information and methods.
The next phase of the Nisa chatbot will see the Ipas Africa Alliance partner with vetted pharmacies to build and improve the Nisa chatbot to offer medically accurate, user tested information on safe abortion, digital accompaniment for abortion selfcare and post abortion contraception services. The upgrade will entail targeted marketing and a direct-to-consumer links to improved confidential access to contraceptives or abortion pills from partner pharmacies.
Once the user accesses the medications, the chatbot will provide a step-by-step guide on self-administration with prompt link for follow up care incase of any adverse events.
The role of a chatbot like Nisa is underscored by the WHO Guidelines on self-care interventions for health and well-being which were published in 2021. “Self-care interventions are among the most promising and exciting new approaches to improving health and well-being, both from a health systems perspective and for the users of these interventions,” states the document.
“Self-care interventions are among the most promising and exciting new approaches to improving health and well-being, both from a health systems perspective and for the users of these interventions"
Currently 400 million people in lower and middle income countries lack access to essential health services, partly due to a projected shortage of 13 million health workers by 2035. Chatbots like Nisa can help drive positive health behaviour through a tool that is private and enables users to access information that applies to their specific context.
