It is commonly reported that one in six couples in Australia face difficulty when trying to conceive. Many of these couples, in consultation with their doctor, consider using IVF with recent reports indicating that approximately 40,000 women undertake IVF treatment each year in Australia. Such treatment often comes at a significant, physical, mental and financial cost.
The industry is largely commercialised with two of the largest providers, Monash IVF and Virtus, listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. In recent years there has been calls by the Government, media and academics for greater transparency around the reporting of IVF success rates. Our research on this issue, undertaken in collaboration with Professor Craig Deegan at the University of Tasmania has found the reporting of success rates by IVF clinics on their websites to be at best confusing and at worst misleading.
In response to these calls, the IVF industry has just launched a website called ‘Your IVF Success’. The website provides users with information across three broad areas. The first is about understanding IVF including what is involved in the process and the different types of IVF treatment. The second is an individualised success rate estimator which uses machine learning algorithms to estimate a patient’s chance of having a baby using IVF based on a patient’s personal circumstances such as age, infertility diagnoses, previous pregnancies, and the outcomes of previous IVF treatment. The third, allows patients to search for an IVF clinic in their area and provides information about the services they provide, the types of patients treated, and their IVF success rates in comparison to the national average.
The website claims to provide ‘information to help you decide if IVF treatment is right for you’. However, for patients to be able to make informed decisions regarding their treatment, they necessarily require information that is both relevant and reliable. By reliable, we mean that information should be complete and free from bias and error.
While the ‘Your IVF Success’ website is a step in the right direction, particularly in relation to providing patients with information that is relevant to their specific circumstances, there are some points to consider in relation to the reliability of this information.
First, the individualised success rate estimate is based on key patient characteristics but does not incorporate all factors known to impact IVF outcomes. Essentially, the estimate is just that, and should be interpreted by patients with caution.
Second, the clinic success rates reported on the ‘Your IVF Success’ website are standardised and therefore reduce the ability of clinics to select favourable metrics by which to measure and report success. While this aids in comparability and may limit bias, since clinic participation in this initiative is voluntary, those clinics that perform poorly relative to the national average may simply choose to opt-out.
Third, while the website claims to provide patients with ‘independent information’, the data on which this information is based, comes from the clinics themselves with no apparent requirement for a mandatory independent third-party audit of the data’s accuracy.
While the ‘Your IVF Success’ website presents a major development in the promotion of transparency in IVF success rate reporting, we do not see this as a cure-all solution to the issues faced by patients when making important decisions about whether to commence, continue or cease IVF treatment. We, therefore, suggest that patients exercise care if seeking to rely on the success rate information provided by the tool.
Dr Shannon Sidaway (School of Accounting, Information Systems and Supply Chain, RMIT University) and Dr Daniela Juric (Monash Business School, Monash University)
