IFFS and ESHRE support new standards for cross border reproductive care

The International Federation of Fertility Societies (IFFS) has been working with the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) in support of the ESHRE Good Practice Guide for Cross Border Reproductive Care.

Commenting on the ESHRE standard, Mr Richard Kennedy (Coventry, UK), General Secretary of the International Federation of Fertility Societies said:

"The International Federation of Fertility Societies is leading a global effort to raise clinical standards and welcomes this guide from ESHRE. While the ESHRE paper produces important guidance in a European context, the movement of patients across international boundaries has emerged as an increasingly important global phenomenon providing significant challenges to safeguarding patient safety.

In practical terms, this means that often patients will travel to countries where standards of care may be very different to that available in their home country, or where there is variability of care from clinic to clinic. It is inevitable in such a rapidly growing and internationalised field, that there will be wide variation in practice and development of services. We need to ensure the global infertility family commits to common goals in standards of care. The ESHRE guidance is an important step down this road, and the IFFS is working with ESHRE and our other international partners to achieve the goal of maximum patient safety."