The National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit (NPEU) is a multi-disciplinary research unit within the

Nuffield Department of Population Health The Nuffield Department of Population Health (NDPH) of Oxford University is located at the Old Road Campus in Headington, Oxford, England. It is one of the largest departments within Oxford University's Medical Sciences Division. The head of ...

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

. It is located in the Richard Doll Building on the

Old Road Campus The Old Road Campus is a University of Oxford site south of Old Road, in Headington, east Oxford, England. The Churchill Hospital, a teaching hospital managed by the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, is to the south. Facilitie ...

, in

Headington Headington is an eastern suburb of Oxford, in the county of Oxfordshire, England. It is at the top of Headington Hill overlooking the city in the Thames valley below, and bordering Marston, Oxford, Marston to the north-west, Cowley, Oxfordshire ...

, east

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. The unit's work involves

randomized controlled trials A randomized controlled trial (or randomized control trial; RCT) is a form of scientific experiment used to control factors not under direct experimental control. Examples of RCTs are clinical trials that compare the effects of drugs, surgical ...

, national surveillance programs and surveys and other research on maternal and infant health and care in the

perinatal period Prenatal development () involves the development of the embryo and of the fetus during a viviparous animal's gestation. Prenatal development starts with fertilization, in the germinal stage of embryonic development, and continues in fetal deve ...

(before, during and after birth). The early work of the NPEU in developing a register of perinatal trials and methods for synthesizing their results lay the foundations for the

Cochrane Collaboration Cochrane is a British international charitable organisation formed to synthesize medical research findings to facilitate evidence-based choices about health interventions involving health professionals, patients and policy makers. It includes ...

Activities

The mission of the NPEU is "...to produce methodologically rigorous research evidence to improve the care provided to women and their families during pregnancy, childbirth, the newborn period and early childhood as well as promoting the effective use of resources by perinatal health services.” Since its inception, a key area of its activities has been undertaking and supporting

of the effects of perinatal care, now through the NPEU Clinical Trials Unit. The NPEU runs the UK Obstetric Surveillance System (UKOSS), which is a national system studying rare disorders of pregnancy. In 2011, the Policy Research Unit in Maternal Health and Care (PRUMC) was established at the NPEU.

History

Classified-bibliography-of-controlled-trials

The NPEU was established in 1978 by the Department of Health at

, following a joint request for a national research institute by the

Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) is a professional association based in London, United Kingdom. Its members, including people with and without medical degrees, work in the field of obstetrics and gynaecology, that is ...

and the

British Paediatric Association The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, often referred to as the RCPCH, is the professional body for paediatrics, paediatricians (doctors specialising in child health) in the United Kingdom. It is responsible for the postgraduate, pos ...

. The Department gave the unit the task of providing "information which can promote effective use of resources in the perinatal health services." From the beginning, the first NPEU Director,

Iain Chalmers Sir Iain Geoffrey Chalmers is a British health services researcher, one of the founders of the Cochrane Collaboration,Archie Cochrane Archibald Leman Cochrane (12 January 1909 – 18 June 1988) was a Scottish physician noted for his book, ''Effectiveness and Efficiency: Random Reflections on Health Services'', which advocated the use of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) t ...

in his book, ''Effectiveness and Efficiency: Random Reflections on Health Services''. From its early days, the NPEU was a leader in both

to assess the effects of perinatal care, the retrieval of information, and the development and use of

systematic reviews A systematic review is a scholarly synthesis of the evidence on a clearly presented topic using critical methods to identify, define and assess research on the topic. A systematic review extracts and interprets data from published studies on ...

and

meta-analyses Meta-analysis is a method of synthesis of quantitative data from multiple independent studies addressing a common research question. An important part of this method involves computing a combined effect size across all of the studies. As such, th ...

to synthesize research results. The unit developed extensive national and international collaborations which were to form both the basis of its work and lay the foundations for the development of the

. Beginning with a card file of references to perinatal trials and both manual and electronic searching for further trials, the NPEU developed first a book, the ''Classified Bibliography of Controlled Trials in Perinatal Medicine 1940–1984'', and then the ''Oxford Database of Perinatal Trials'' (ODPT). This process of developing a register of trials led to others establishing a register of trials in fertility as well as the basis for the development of the ''Cochrane Controlled Trials Register'' (CCTR) when the NPEU's Director left to establish the UK Cochrane Centre in 1992, from where the

evolved in 1993. By 1989, the synthesis of the results of perinatal research led to the publication of major books. By 1990, ODPT included electronic syntheses called overviews, which were the precursor for the

's ''Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews''. In 2013, the NPEU was awarded a silver department

Athena SWAN Athena SWAN (Scientific Women's Academic Network) is an equality charter mark framework and accreditation scheme established and managed by the UK Equality Challenge Unit (now part of Advance HE) in 2005 that recognises and celebrates good pra ...

award for its commitment to advancing women's careers in science and medicine.

Directors

* Sir

Iain Chalmers Sir Iain Geoffrey Chalmers is a British health services researcher, one of the founders of the Cochrane Collaboration,Judith Lumley (1994 to 1995) * Peter Brocklehurst (2002 to 2011) * Jenny Kurinczuk (2011 to present)

References

External links

* {{authority control Epidemiology organizations Health in Oxfordshire Maternity in the United Kingdom Medical research institutes in the United Kingdom Obstetrics and gynaecology organizations Organisations associated with the University of Oxford Organizations established in 1978 Research institutes in Oxford 1978 establishments in the United Kingdom