A UK GEM – THE BRITISH PAEDIATRIC SURVEILLANCE UNIT

Since my formal training is in epidemiology and biostatistics, the British Paediatric Surveillance Unit (BPSU) has been an important source of information for me. It is a gem of the UK paediatric research community. It provides among the best data on rare diseases in the world. In this issue, Richard Lynn and Euan Ross provide a 20-year perspective on the BPSU. They review its history and achievements, including a number of landmark studies, as well as the development of the International Network of Paediatric Surveillance Units, a group of 12 other surveillance programmes.

As part of our celebration of the BPSU we have included two important papers from the unit – one in ADC and the other in F&N. The first report repeats a survey, using the same methodology previously employed by the BPSU that focuses on vitamin K deficiency bleeding. Surveys had been conducted in 1993–94 and 2001–02. It appears that the incidence of vitamin K deficiency bleeding has more than halved since the previous two reports. The second study focuses on the …