The NPEU is a multi-disciplinary research unit which was established at the University of Oxford in 1978.
Our mission is to conduct methodologically rigorous research to provide evidence to improve the care provided to women, babies and families during pregnancy, childbirth, the newborn period and early childhood as well as promoting the effective use of resources by perinatal health services
With no existing evidence to support the use of ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) to improve intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP), PITCHES, a Phase III clinical trial proposes to provide definitive evidence to discover if the use of UDCA improves pregnancy outcomes in women with this liver disorder.
For more information, please find the recently published study protocol for the PITCHES trial in the BioMedCentral Trials journal here.
The Policy Research Unit in Maternal Health and Care (PRU-MHC) was established in 2010 with funding from the Department of Health and encompasses such projects as:
The NPEU Clinical Trials Unit (NPEU CTU) is a fully registered UKCRC Clinical Trials Unit and typically runs a number of large multi-centre Randomised Controlled Trials, such as:
The NPEU also conducts Social Sciences, Health Economics and Epidemiological Research (SHEER) which includes on-going influential studies such as: