Quote Of The Year

Timeless Quotes - Sadly The Late Paul Shetler - "Its not Your Health Record it's a Government Record Of Your Health Information"

or

H. L. Mencken - "For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong."

Thursday, February 18, 2021

This Looks Like An Initiative That Could Make A Difference For Many.

This appeared last week:

Would-be parents given access to IVF predictor, clinic success rates

By Kate Aubusson

February 11, 2021 — 6.57pm

Would-be parents will soon have access to a world-first website that allows them to compare the success rates of Australian IVF clinics and predict their own chance of having a baby.

The ‘Your IVF Success’ website will launch on Monday funded by the federal government in response to growing calls for greater transparency in the sector.

The website’s predictor tool works like a calculator, allowing users to enter their age, the age of their partner, their infertility diagnosis, whether they have previously had children, and any previous IVF treatment to offer an estimate of their chances of success.

Heidi Stevens and her husband Dean experienced a 12-year odyssey of emotional upheaval that cost them in excess of $100,000 before they had two daughters through a Genea IVF clinic in Sydney.

Such a website would have been a “game changer” that may have led them to Genea sooner and avoided some of costly experimental add-on treatments - now defunct - that she was initially given.

“This is nothing short of groundbreaking … for years I was flying blind without that information,” Ms Stevens, 42, said.

“I got what I wished so hard for and I just feel there is something about these girls - that I am meant to bring them into the world.”

Lots more here:

https://www.smh.com.au/national/would-be-parents-given-access-to-ivf-predictor-clinic-success-rates-20210211-p571q6.html

I note there was also international coverage here:

Website compares IVF clinic success rates

Professor Georgina Chambers of UNSW says the new portal will also offer patients an individualised estimator of their chances of having a baby through IVF

12th February 2021

By Reuters Health

From Monday, a website created by the University of NSW will provide information on the success rate of all 85 IVF clinics around Australia, as well as offer an individualised patient calculator. 

Professor Georgina Chambers, director of the National Perinatal Statistics Unit at University of NSW, says it's not surprising clinics have differing success rates but the website strives to give a fair representation. 

"We will present the same information about all clinics in the one place," Professor Chambers says.

Here is the link:

https://www.ausdoc.com.au/news/website-compares-ivf-clinic-success-rates

Reading the detail is seems a good deal of though has gone into how and what information is provided and explained to people who are clearly pretty worried and concerned.

All in all seems like a useful service.

David.

 

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just a thought. Do all the clinics have the same patient demographics? The same socioeconomic background? The same general health patterns?

Rather reminds me of the doctors who specialise in really hard cases. Statistically, they can have very poor outcomes, not because they are no good, but because their patients have diseases that are tough to treat.

There is always a devil in the data.

Dr David G More MB PhD said...

The site developers say they have tried to correct for such issues agreeing it is more than possible for data o mislead.

David,

Anonymous said...

"The site developers say they have tried to correct for such issues"

but have they succeed?

They might be able to correct (to a degree) for socioeconomic factors by postcode but not for patient condition - that would be an invasion of privacy and we can't have that can we?