Issue 2

Issue No. 2 - January 2008

This is the first of HFEA's monthly e-newsletters for 2008. We want to keep you up-to-date with news, policy and guidance from the HFEA and other news from around the sector throughout the year.

If you have colleagues or friends who would like to read this newsletter, ask them to sign up at www.hfea.gov.uk/e-updates

We hope you find this interesting and informative. If you have any feedback about the content of this newsletter, please email hfeaeupdate@hfea.gov.uk 
 

News from the HFEA

New HFEA Chair announced
Professor Lisa Jardine CBE has been appointed as the new Chair of the HFEA and will start on 1 April 2008.

Professor Jardine is a well known historian who is Director of the Centre for Editing Lives and Letters and Centenary Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary, University of London.

Find out more about the appointment

Decision on licensing hybrid research
An HFEA Licence Committee has offered one-year research licences to Kings College London and the University of Newcastle
to undertake human-animal cytoplasmic hybrid embryo research.

Find out more about the decision and read the minutes of the Committee.

Invitation to HFEA Open Authority Meeting
The next HFEA Open Authority meeting will be held on Wednesday 20 February in Central London.

Topics include supporting the sector to reduce the number of multiple births following IVF and a presentation on sperm donation services from the British Fertility Society, by President, Dr. Mark Hamilton.

Register for this free event

2007 half year clinic data published
The Authority decided at its January meeting to publish the 2007 half year early pregnancy data to help provide patients with more
up to date information.

Clinics that have confirmed their data had it published on the ´Find a Clinic´ section of the HFEA website this week. This data
accompanies the latest 2005 full outcome data that is now available.

Look for '2007 pregnancy rates' in 'Find a clinic' under each clinic's success rate page.

Latest feedback from our Patients' Panel

We recently received feedback from our patients' panel survey. Interestingly when asked about the cost of their treatment, 27% of those given information about their treatment were subsequently charged additional costs they weren´t expecting. Drugs were the most ommon type of unexpected additional cost.

Read about the other findings in the newsletter.

Policy and Guidance

HFEA expresses concern about European coding proposals
The HFEA has expressed concerns about EU proposals for a single European coding system for human tissues and cells, which could affect all HFEA-licensed centres.

The HFEA has said that current proposals could be burdensome on centres, require the purchase of costly new equipment and could threaten the viability of samples currently in storage.

Read the HFEA response to the consultation.