CAREmaps

We were the first UK clinic to introduce time-lapse embryo imaging. 

CAREmaps, the name of our time-lapse imaging procedure, has been designed to help us choose the best embryo without genetic testing. It allows us to predict which embryos have the most potential, which can increase your chances of successful IVF treatment. 

What does CAREmaps involve?

CAREmaps time-lapse embryo imaging is unique to CARE and is offered at all our clinics. We’ll carry out the procedure during your IVF treatment once we’ve fertilised your eggs.

The process includes three important elements.

• Time lapse embryo imaging, where we take photographs of your embryos, without disturbing them, every few minutes. This gives our embryologists much more information than can be gained by standard methods.
• Specific morphokinetic algorithms, which are calculations about what the embryo should be doing at specific points in time.
• Closed incubation. With standard incubation we have to remove the embryos from the incubator to observe them. However, with time-lapse imaging the embryos stay in the incubator, without the need to be removed, providing us with continuous monitoring of your embryos.

Our scientists are world-leaders in time-lapse technology, and our CAREmaps technique is really highly developed; we’ve innovated models that can help us  more reliably select the highest quality embryos, allowing us to see whether each has a low, medium, or high chance of success.

You can find out more about CAREmaps by talking to your local clinic or contacting us. 

What is CAREmaps?

Professor Simon Fishel and Alison Campbell explain time lapse imaging as it applies to the clinical practice of IVF.  MAPS stands for Morphokinetic Algorithms to Predict Success, we use computer algorithms that allow us to predict a moment in time when the embryo is undergoing its cell division and allows us to understand what it should be doing at that moment in time. The images taken record many more of the stages and events of each embryo’s development than can ever be seen by manual ‘snapshot’ observations made during standard incubation.  

HFEA Comment

What are the side effects and risks?

There are no risks that have been identified from the use of time lapse monitoring of embryos.  It is possible, however, that CAREmaps might identify that none of your embryos are suitable for transfer and if that happens your doctor will work with you to identify the best way forward, taking account of all of the information from your treatment cycle, the embryo monitoring and your medical history.  

Is CAREmaps effective?

The independent regulator of fertility treatment, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), has developed a ‘red-amber-green’ rating system and provides information on their website about treatments that are offered on top of your routine fertility treatment – known as treatment add-ons. They consider that the only way to be confident that a treatment is effective enough to be used routinely is to carry out a randomised controlled trial (RCT). In an RCT, patients are assigned randomly to two groups: a treatment group, given the new treatment and a control group, given a well-tried treatment or a placebo.

The HFEA has given time-lapse imaging an amber rating because although there have been studies looking at whether time-lapse imaging can improve birth rates, they don’t consider that there is enough evidence from RCTs to prove that time-lapse imaging improves your chance of having a baby.

It is important to consider though that CAREmaps combines time-lapse imaging with the use of CARE’s unique embryo ranking model. CARE’s own data from a study published in 2017 of more than 23,000 treatment cycles showed a highly significant increase in births when CAREmaps was used to select embryos for patients aged younger than 38 using their own eggs. A paper published by CARE in 2019 showed that CAREmaps is superior for selecting embryos most likely to result in a birth than standard selection methods.