Replaces the Reproductive Medicine Network (RMN)
Overview
The ConFIRM program is a collection of collaborative consortia, each with two or more linked clinical sites, that address important questions in male and female infertility and translate new discoveries into clinical practice. Currently, the program comprises three clinical trial consortia, each investigating an important topic in reproductive health. Consortium researchers utilize a common clinical trial protocol implemented across sites with rigor, adequate sample size, and diversity to provide answers more rapidly than individual sites acting alone.
The ConFIRM program launched in 2020 as a replacement and upgrade of the RMN, which NICHD began funding in 1990. The RMN Investigator Group still meets and publishes manuscripts with primary and secondary data from the network. The RMN Data Coordination Center at the Yale Collaborative Center for Statistics in Science maintains the RMN website 
, including information on RMN infertility trials . Data from RMN studies are available in NICHD’s Data and Specimen Hub (DASH).
ConFIRM addresses important questions in the field of reproductive medicine requiring coordinated multisite clinical trials. Regardless of the outcomes, the findings promise to affect clinical practice.
Topic Areas and Consortia Members
ConFIRM includes the following topic areas/clinical trials, sites, and principal investigators.
- Endometrial Environment (Uterine Receptivity)/Implantation and Effects on Downstream Obstetrical Outcomes. This consortium is studying the comparative effectiveness and safety of two commonly used clinical approaches for achieving endometrial receptivity for frozen embryo transfer.
- Johns Hopkins University: Valerie Baker, M.D., and James Segars, M.D.
- University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center: Karl Hansen, M.D., Ph.D.
- Stanford University: Ruth Lathi, M.D., and Virginia Winn, M.D.
- Optimizing Live Birth Outcomes in Women with Endometriosis-Associated Infertility. This consortium is investigating the treatment of endometriosis with an oral gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) antagonist prior to in vitro fertilization to determine the effects on live birth outcomes.
- Yale University: Hugh Taylor, M.D., and Heping Zhang, Ph.D.
- Northwestern University: Emily Jungheim, M.D., M.S.C.I.
- University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill: Steven Young, M.D., Ph.D.
- University of Colorado, Denver: Nanette Santoro, M.D.
- Evaluation of a Novel Non-Hormonal Treatment of Uterine Fibroids that Does Not Interfere with Desired Fertility. This consortium is investigating a novel nonpharmacologic substance, EGCG/green tea extract, known not to interfere with the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Ovarian axis, and shown to be effective in a prior, but small, study, on reduction of uterine fibroid size.
- University of Chicago: Ayman Al-Hendy, M.D., Ph.D.
- University of Illinois at Chicago: Frank Gonzalez, M.D.
- Yale University: Hugh Taylor, M.D., and Heping Zhang, Ph.D.
- Johns Hopkins University: Valerie Baker, M.D., and James Segars, M.D.
More Information
NICHD Contact (for both ConFIRM and RMN): David Weinberg
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