Using big data to improve reproductive medicine, pregnancy, childbirth and newborn life
The National Perinatal Epidemiology & Statistics Unit (NPESU) is a joint unit of the Centre for Big Data Research in Health (CBDRH) and the UNSW School of Clinical Medicine.
The NPESU is a leading source of statistical and epidemiological research in reproductive medicine, pregnancy, childbirth, as well as the health and care of newborns. This places the unit at the intersection between clinical and public health research, as a provider of cutting-edge expertise in managing and analysing large-scale complex health data—or, big data.
The NPESU undertakes both commissioned and investigator-led research with expertise in reproductive medicine, stillbirth research, models of maternity care, perinatal mental health, fetal growth charts and newborn care of high-risk infants.
Our methodological areas of expertise include construction and analysis of linked administrative datasets, perinatal epidemiology and biostatistics, policy evaluation, health services costing and research and health economics.
Our team includes senior and junior academic staff, clinicians, professional staff and higher-degree research students.
With funding from the Australian Government, the NPESU developed and manages the YourIVFSuccess. The website provides valuable information for patients to help them as they make the difficult journey through IVF. It includes a searchable tool for locating all IVF clinics in Australia and a range of information on them including their success rates and the type of patients they treatment, as well as a Patient Estimator that provides individualised prediction of a patients success based on information they enter https://yourivfsuccess.com.au
Project: Does withholding enteral feeds around blood transfusion reduce the incidence of necrotising enterocolitis (NEC) in very preterm infants? The international WHEAT Study - NHMRC MRFF
The WHEAT Study (WithHolding or continuing Enteral feeds Around blood Transfusion): The Australian arm of the multinational WHEAT International collaboration
The WHEAT Australia trial is a randomised, controlled, multi-centre trial being undertaken in NICUs across Australia. The trial aims to discovering if it is better to withhold or continue feeds during premature babies’ blood transfusions to reduce the incidence of necrotising enterocolitis (NEC). This is the registry embedded trial with data sourced from the central ANZNN Data Collection Clinical Registry.