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Award winning medical website

15 July 2009

Amnio Dex logo

An innovative University website which helps parents facing the difficult decision to test for conditions like Down's syndrome in their unborn child, has scooped a major international prize.

amnioDex scooped the ‘Best of Show’ and the ‘Gold Award’ at the 2009 Health and Science Communications Association (HeSCA) Media Festival held in St Louis, USA.

Developed by Professor Glyn Elwyn from the Department of Primary Care and Public Health, School of Medicine and Clinical Epidemiology PhD student Marie-Anne Durand, the new website is designed to help those parents to decide whether to undertake an amniocentesis test – where a sample of the amniotic fluid that surrounds the foetus is removed and analysed for chromosome abnormalities.

Professor Glyn Elwyn who leads the School of Medicine’s Decision Laboratory research group said: "With existing information and support provided to women who are offered an amniocentesis widely considered to be insufficient, amnioDex has been developed to facilitate decision making by providing decisional support and unbiased information.

"amnioDex has been carefully designed to offer women decisional support and unbiased information, and to assist them in a difficult decision made at a time of strong emotional upheaval.

"We are thrilled to receive these awards which recognise our commitment to developing and evaluating high-standard decision support interventions."

The team was funded by the Sir Halley Stewart Trust to carry out a needs assessment, development and evaluation of patient decision support for women facing amniocentesis.

The new website includes video clips of women’s stories and health professionals, decision making exercises, a forum, and useful contacts list of related charities and support groups.