The Quality of Practice Committee of the RCPCH

The logo of the Cochrane collaboration) shows the clear evidence of benefit from the randomised controlled trials of antenatal steroids in preterm labour available in 1982 if studies had been subject to meta-analysis. 2 Antenatal steroids took over a decade after this point to be widely incorporated into obstetric practice despite the clear evidence that neonatal mortality and subsequent neurodevelopmental morbidity were reduced. 3 Similarly suboptimal management was shown in a proportion of children with Kawasaki disease in the UK in 1990. In the last five years the QPC has identified, appraised, and disseminated the appraisals of over 20 evidence based clinical guidelines on a wide variety of topics (table 2).\n The final decision about topic selection rests with the Secretary of State for Health and the Welsh Assembly.