Our Aim
To save and improve the lives of mothers’ and babies’ worldwide
through randomised studies enrolling 5,000 to 50,000 or more.
To work with other organisations, clinicians, researchers, parents,
policymakers and funders around the world to identify key questions
to test treatments that may save lives and reduce disability - and
to answer those questions faster and more reliably than ever before.
Alpha Collaboration
Improving perinatal health by randomised mega-studies
Our mission is to build a coalition with organisations, researchers,
professionals, parents, funders, policymakers and individuals around
the globe to improve healthy survival for mothers and babies by
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identifying questions of high priority to stakeholders worldwide for
trials assessing mortality as the primary outcome and
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answering those questions faster than ever before by focusing
collaborative efforts on international randomised mega-studies
enrolling 5,000 to 50,000 participants or more.
Studies this large will also yield considerably more precise estimates
of differences in disability in survivors than would have normally
been possible.
However, such studies will need many centres and highly streamlined
processes to enable fast recruitment with minimal data collection, as
in recent randomised mega-studies in COVID-19.
APTS - a minute’s delay could make a lifetime of difference
Compared with the first 10 years of this century 50,000 more very
premature babies will survive without major disability in the next 10
years - if caregivers worldwide simply delay cord clamping for 60
seconds or more in babies who do not need immediate resuscitation.
That equates to 13 per day - or one more survivor without major
disability every 2 hours.
These forecasts are based on the 2 year follow up results of APTS -
the Australian Placental Transfusion Study - which were published in
The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health in December 2021.
APTS enrolled 1531 babies born before 30 weeks gestation in 25 centres
in 7 countries in the largest-ever randomised trial of delayed versus
immediate cord clamping. By reliably answering an important question
it will improve thousands of children’s and families’ lives.
Yet APTS took 12 years - from 2009 to 2021 - to answer that
question. Can we do better?
Could we have helped more babies and families sooner? What can
perinatal trials learn from the multi-arm multi-stage adaptive
randomised trials and individual participant data prospective
meta-analyses (IPD PMAs) that rapidly identified effective
interventions in COVID-19?
By collaborating globally and integrating digital technology, can we
answer important questions with randomised studies run at least ten
times larger and faster than APTS - for example by recruiting 250
centres instead of just 25 - and at one-tenth the cost?
Your help is needed to build the Alpha Collaboration
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The Alpha Collaboration is in its formative stages as we seek to
work with organisations and individuals worldwide to build an
alliance to promote a new generation of randomised mega-studies at
least ten times larger than APTS.
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Such studies will need wholehearted collaboration by thousands of
people. So we will be calling on stakeholders in every country to
help advance global randomised mega-studies to improve healthy
survival.
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Our goal is to launch the Alpha Collaboration formally in 2022.
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Whether you are a researcher, clinician, parent, policymaker,
represent a funding or regulatory agency or are a student or member
of the public, to learn more about the Alpha Collaboration, please
reach out on
info@alphacollaboration.com
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