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. 2023 Apr 24;2023(2):hoad011.
doi: 10.1093/hropen/hoad011. eCollection 2023.

EuMAR: a roadmap towards a prospective, cycle-by-cycle registry of medically assisted reproduction in Europe

Christian De Geyter  1 , Carlos Calhaz-Jorge  2 , Veerle Goossens  3 , Cristina M Magli  4 , Jesper Smeenk  5 , Kristina Vesela  3 , Nathalie Vermeulen  3 , Christine Wyns  6
Affiliations

EuMAR: a roadmap towards a prospective, cycle-by-cycle registry of medically assisted reproduction in Europe

Christian De Geyter et al. Hum Reprod Open. .

Abstract

More than 20 years ago, the survey of activities in medically assisted reproduction (MAR) was initiated in Europe and resulted in cross-sectional annual reports, as issued by the European IVF Monitoring (EIM) consortium of ESHRE. Over time, these reports mirror the continuous development of the technologies and contribute to increased transparency and surveillance of reproductive care. Meanwhile, progressive changes of existing treatment modalities and the introduction of new technologies resulted in the need of a cumulative approach in the assessment of treatment outcomes, which warrants a prospective cycle-by-cycle data registry on MAR activities, including fertility preservation. This change in the paradigm of data collection in Europe towards the construction of cumulative outcome results is expected to generate additional insights into cross-institutional but also cross-border movements of patients and reproductive material. This is essential to improve vigilance and surveillance. The European monitoring of Medically Assisted Reproduction (EuMAR) project, co-funded by the European Union, will establish a registry for the transnational collection of prospective cycle-by-cycle MAR and fertility preservation data on the basis of an individual reproductive care code (IRCC). The rationale for the project and the objectives are presented here.

Keywords: ART; Europe; epidemiology; fertility preservation; medically assisted reproduction; registry; surveillance; vigilance.

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Conflict of interest statement

J.S. reports speaker’s fees from Ferring and Merck, support to attend conferences from Ferring, Merck and Good Life, and participation in an advisory board for Merck, outside the scope of the current work. The other authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Objectives of the EuMAR project. EuMAR: European monitoring of Medically Assisted Reproduction.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Theoretical (draft) model visualizing possible data flows between institutions offering MAR services, national competent authorities, the central EuMAR registry, the European Commission, and other stakeholders. In this theoretical model, countries can decide whether the reporting of pseudonymized cycle-by-cycle data to the central EuMAR registry goes through the national competent authority (NCA) (Option A) or whether institutions offering MAR services report to the central registry directly and NCAs receive data from the EuMAR registry (Option B). API, application processing interface (i.e. a software intermediary allowing two applications to exchange data); FP, fertility preservation; IRCC, individual reproductive care code; KPI, key performance indicator; MAR, medically assisted reproduction; NCA, national competent authority; EuMAR: European monitoring of Medically Assisted Reproduction; PGT: preimplantation genetic testing. 1If no data collection system is available.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
SWOT analysis for building the EuMAR Registry, as a pan-European registry of harmonized MAR data. The SWOT analysis highlights the need to standardize and scale up the existing MAR data collection by the European IVF Monitoring (EIM) Consortium of ESHRE, but it also shows that the EIM data collection represents a strong basis on which EuMAR can build. SWOT: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats; MAR: medically assisted reproduction; EU: European Union.
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References

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