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31 March 1999

Dear Colleague

DATA PRESENTATION

The HFEA has a statutory obligation to ensure that centres publish accurate information. As you know, paragraph 4.4 of the HFEA's Code of Practice states that information provided for prospective patients should include:

'the centre's own live birth rate per treatment cycle and the national live birth rate per treatment cycle.'

The Authority has evidence that some centres are publishing data in a potentially misleading manner. For example, we are aware of clinics presenting data relating to treatment cycles done over only a very short time period or giving pregnancy rate data without reference to the unit's live birth rate per treatment cycle.

I appreciate that clinics are aware of their strict duty to give truthful information about the treatments they offer and that most clinics are not publishing misleading data. However I would like to remind clinics that no information should be issued unless reference is made to standard data for an annual period i.e. the most recent annual live birth rate per treatment cycle. The data presented should be actual live births not including ongoing pregnancies and the annual live birth rate should be the most prominent figure given. Data from the HFEA Patient's Guide should not be presented as a league table.

This guidance applies to written, verbal and electronic communications. Clinics should also be aware that any material that they issue must conform to the Advertising Standards Authority and the General Medical Council guidelines.

The presentation of clear and unambiguous data is in everyone's best interests.

Yours sincerely

Ruth Deech
Chairman

Page last updated: 17 August 2012

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