EurocatNL is a population-based congenital anomaly registry covering Groningen, Friesland and Drenthe. It provides an accurate and reliable database on congenital anomalies and associated risk factors. All pregnancy outcomes are covered and information is collected on genetic testing, prenatal diagnosis and risk factors via parental questionnaires, medical records and pharmacy data. The UMCG Research Data Catalogue provides an overview of EurocatNL data.
Since 1981, EurocatNL determines the prevalence of congenital anomalies in the Northern Netherlands and monitors whether there are upwards or downwards trends in these numbers. In addition, EurocatNL is involved in many research projects, by providing data to (inter)national research groups, but also by initiating scientific studies to investigate certain patterns more thoroughly. An important research area of EurocatNL is medication. Information about the safety of medication use during pregnancy is lacking. Therefore, EurocatNL is involved in two large consortia, EUROmediCAT and ConcePTION, to investigate the effects of medication use during pregnancy.
EurocatNL is also part of EUROlinkCAT, in which the health and educational outcomes of children with congenital anomalies for the first 10 years of their lives were investigated. Recently, the sensitivity of the Dutch prenatal screening program to detect congenital anomalies was evaluated, and it was studied whether the changes in this program had an effect on the timing of detection of congenital anomalies or on the outcome of pregnancy.
Due to her impending retirement, former Eurocat leader Hermien de Walle
decided to hand over the baton to Dieuwke Broekstra. Before starting her new position, Dieuwke has worked at the Department of Plastic Surgery as a postdoc. She continues this position 1 day a week.
The goal of Dieuwke is to extend the coverage of EurocatNL, ideally nationwide. After all, the outcomes of the three northern provinces are not representative for the entire country. Therefore, it is hard for other hospitals and research institutes to use data of EurocatNL for their own research. Dieuwke sees opportunities for EurocatNL in digitalisation and technological improvements. Her idea is to start small, for example by extending the base registration (prevalence numbers) to expertise centres on congenital heart defects, and expand with expertise centres on other congenital anomalies later on.
