Reproductive Medicine Act effectiveness review

The Federal Office of Public Health has been commissioned to review the effectiveness of the Reproductive Medicine Act (RMA). The aim of the review is to investigate whether the Act is being implemented effectively and appropriately and whether it is achieving its objectives.

The effectiveness review (evaluation) investigates whether the Reproductive Medicine Act is achieving its objectives. It is carried out in three stages, namely monitoring, formative evaluation and summative evaluation.

Evaluation is based on the impact model of the Reproductive Medicine Act, which reflects the legislative objectives of the RMA and the regulatory instruments that should be used to achieve those objectives.

Monitoring

Monitoring forms the basis of the effectiveness review and is based on systematically collected data. These data provide an insight into reproductive medicine practices in Switzerland.

Among other things, a record is made of how many couples use reproductive medicine procedures such as insemination or in-vitro fertilisation (IVF), how many doctors have a licence to carry out reproductive medicine procedures and how many sperm donors are registered.

The page Reproductive Medicine: Facts and Figures shows the results. The annually-compiled short reports on the results can be found in the ‘Documents’ tab below.

Formative evaluation

Formative evaluation is used to assess implementation of the RMA. To this end, qualitative surveys are carried out in the form of interviews or questionnaires: How much effort is required for implementation? Do the legal provisions prove effective in practice? Is the Act being enforced uniformly throughout Switzerland? What desirable and undesirable effects can be identified? Should implementation be improved?

The formative evaluation ran from 2019 until 2021. The final report, executive summary and opinion from the FOPH and GDK can be found in German on the page Evaluationsberichte «Biomedizin und Forschung» under ‘Abgeschlossene Studien' or in French on the page Rapports d'évaluation sur «Biomédecine et recherche» under 'Études terminées'.

Summative evaluation

Summative evaluation is the final stage of the effectiveness review. It examines the fundamental question of whether the Act is achieving its objectives or whether it needs to be revised. As from 2023, the FOPH will report on the effects of the Act and, if necessary, will prepare recommendations for an amendment of the Act.

Documents
Legislation

Reproductive medicine legislation

The Federal Act of 18 December 1998 on Medically Assisted Reproduction lays down the conditions under which the methods of medically assisted reproduction may be used.