TY - JOUR T1 - Atoms JF - Archives of Disease in Childhood JO - Arch Dis Child SP - 737 LP - 737 VL - 92 IS - 9 AU - Howard Bauchner Y1 - 2007/09/01 UR - http://adc.bmj.com/content/92/9/737.2.abstract N2 - 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 … ER -