Measuring our success

Tommy’s is committed to making pregnancy and birth safer for all. We believe that to do that we need to carefully monitor our research to make sure we're making progress towards that goal.

For that reason our research centres are independently reviewed every two years by leading professors from around the world.

In addition, each centre must report its own annual progress on key performance indicators. The key indicators for the year to November 2012 are summarised below.

Each year the centres also report additional data on esteem indicators, grants that arose as a result of funding from Tommy's' grants, new tools for research, training and career development, as well as impact on health policy, new products and inventions. To view these reports, please email us at websitesupport@tommys.org

Key developments in our research centres

London research centre

The specialist preterm clinic has been evaluated over a 10-year period. The clinic has demonstrated a >10 percent reduction in preterm birth both locally and regionally; this has been achieved against a national and international rise in preterm birth. The clinic has been shortlisted for a National NHS Grand Challenges Innovation Prize.
Further progress has been made to identify a marker for pre-eclampsia, early in pregnancy. Further work is underway to validate the marker as an effective clinical test.

Manchester research centre

A treatment has been developed for fetal growth restriction in pregnancy. Further studies are now required to validate its effectiveness in lots of pregnant women. This treatment could help to reduce stillbirths and the number of babies born too small.
Work is progressing to identify babies suffering from growth restriction early in pregnancy so that they can receive increased monitoring and better treatment.

Edinburgh research centre

Induction of labour at or after 39 weeks gestation reduces mortality by 60-70 percent without increasing caesarian sections. This finding could help reduce stillbirths if applied across the UK.
Studies in both Edinburgh and Manchester using MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) are helping to screen women whose placentas have not developed properly and are not functioning as well as they should. This is a key indicator of developing pre-eclampsia, fetal growth restriction, stillbirth and other pregnancy complications, and is paving the way for MRI screening in high-risk pregnancies, with the potential tfor improving detection of pregnancy problems before they become clinical emergencies.

Further measures

Funding	London £k	Manchester £k	Edinburgh £k
Current grants held incl. Tommy's funding (total value of grants)	8,836	6,685	8,756
Tommy's funding (annual)	400	400	400
% of annual research centre spend	4.5	6.0	4.5

Staff composition	London No No staff	% staff	Manchester No staff	% staff	Edinburgh No staff	% staff
Principle Investigators	9	11%	17	23%	10	23%
PhD and MSc students	17	21%	23	31%	9	20%
Other staff	54	68%	34	46%	25	57%
Total	80		74		44

Applications submitted	London	Manchester	Edinburgh
Number of grants submitted	23	20	34
Success rate	35%	29%	47%

Date of last audit	London	Manchester	Edinburgh
	Jan 2012	Jan 2012	Jan 2012

Number of peer reviewed scientific papers	London No.	% total	Manchester No.	% total	Edinburgh No.	% total
Impact factor greater than 7	6	12%	2	3.5%	2	5%
Impact factor between 3 and 7	19	38%	36	63%	26	63%
Impact factor up to 3	25	50%	19	34%	13	32%
TOTAL	50		57		41