Becoming a member

The Consortium welcomes applications from centres offering preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) or preimplantation genetic screening (PGS) as a clinical service. There are two levels of membership – full and associate. For both types of membership a contact person who has access to email/internet and is an ESHRE member is required. Full membership requires that the centre must accept the statutes of the Consortium which are basically a commitment to report their clinical data on an annual basis and an imperative to share any negative aspects including misdiagnoses so that these can be investigated and reported (anonymously) to prevent repetition in other centres. Associate membership is for centres who want to become a member but who have not yet conducted any PGD/PGS cycles or for IVF clinics who work with a diagnostic laboratory who are a full member. Full members will become associate members in any year that they do not submit their PGD/PGS cycle data.

The principal rewards for full membership of the Consortium are:

1. Access to annual detailed clinical data from the pooled experience of all Consortium centres
2. Copy of draft and final consortium data papers before publication
3. Participation in research projects to improve PGD methods organised between Consortium centres
4. Free database for collection of PGD information (filemaker Pro)
5. Centre details and indications treated listed on eshre web site (consortium home page)
6. Provision of data on current practice for legislative or other regulatory processes in different countries
7. Certificate of membership Sharing of information on best practice and detailed established protocols
8. Access to any closed consortium meetings
9. Access to any closed consortium training days
10. Regular PGD Consortium newsletter

Associate members only eligible for points 8-11.

The application form is intended to give the Consortium a clear idea of the size and competence of individual centres and requests recent annualised data for both IVF practice in general and PGD if applicable. Please pay particular attention to the choice of the contact person for the centre and make sure their address and contact details are accurate. This person should be the person that has responsibility for interacting with the Consortium on a day-to-day basis.

PLEASE NOTE: The list of centres in the Consortium will be posted on the web site and will be accessible to the whole ESHRE membership. This list can contain details of the tests available at that centre and have the contact details of whoever the centre wishes to put forward as the primary contact for patients or professionals accessing the site. Therefore this person(s) does not have to be the same as the Consortium contact and will be arranged separately in the process of accepting each centre.

Similarly, in some cases several IVF clinics are working with a single genetics centre for PGD provision. In these cases the IVF centres and their details can be listed separately along with their individual details but we would prefer for simplicity and efficiency if the data reporting was from the central genetics centre. Please put both addresses in the box provided for the centre and explain the relationship in the comments box at the end of the form.

Each centre will be given a Consortium code number please use this for the forms and on all correspondence. µ