AMA VICDOC Spring 2023 - Magazine - Page 8
NEWS, VIEWS + REVIEWS
REPORTS BARRY LEVINSON
REVIEWS ANNA CLARK
BREAKTHROUGHS
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REPORT + READ + WATCH + LISTEN
REPORT
New website to predict IVF success
The success rates of all IVF clinics across Australia will be available online
for the first time, making comparisons between clinics easier and more
transparent for future parents.
The YourIVFSuccess website will allow patients to search all 85 accredited
IVF clinics in Australia, providing independent and impartial information
about the clinics and their treatment success.
The new online tool has been developed by the National Perinatal
Epidemiology Statistics Unit (NPESU) at UNSW Sydney and is funded by
the Federal Government.
A patient will be able to predict their chance of IVF success by entering
characteristics such as the couple’s age, diagnosis, whether the couple is
new to IVF, previous IVF cycles and if the patient already has children.
Similar websites have been developed in the UK and US.
“IVF is a difficult process both physically and emotionally and each cycle
can leave patients significantly out of pocket,” said Prof Georgina Chambers,
Director of NPESU. “This independent site will be invaluable for anyone thinking
about starting or continuing IVF and looking for impartial information to
inform those choices.”
Previously the only way a patient could look at success rates was to go to
individual clinics directly where outcomes are presented in different ways
making comparison more difficult.
The IVF prediction tool, created by data scientists from UNSW’s Centre for
Big Data Research in Health, is based on information from more than 600,000
IVF cycles done between 2009-2017 in Australia recorded via the Australia
and New Zealand Assisted Reproduction Database (ANZARD).
ANZARD collects information on almost 80,000 IVF cycles performed
by Australian fertility clinic each year. The most recent data from ANZARD
shows that more than around 14,500 babies were born each year in Australia
from IVF treatment, representing almost one in 20 babies born each year in
Australia.
The success rates of clinics are measured using four indicators including
births from each egg retrieval cycle for all women and for those who are new
to IVF, births per individual treatment attempt and births for each embryo that
is transferred.
“These four measures provide an overall view of a clinic’s performance,
while respecting clinician and patient autonomy for how IVF is practised,
and most importantly, these measures minimise incentives for poor clinical
practise, or incentivise clinics to only treat patients with a good chance of
IVF success,” Prof Chambers said.
Visit yourivfsuccess.com.au for more information.
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