The network was formed initially at the 22 nd International Congress of Paediatrics, held in Amsterdam in August 1998. The 10 founding units were from Australia, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Latvia, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and Switzerland. At that meeting, the aims of INoPSU were restated. Full members are engaged in clinical surveillance and have a scientific committee that oversees the work, meets regularly, and produces an annual report. The Welsh Paediatric Surveillance Unit was approved as a full member at the Ottawa meeting.
Associate members have a more general interest in pediatric health surveillance.
They benefit from the INoPSU network and shared research, but are not able to vote. The British Ophthalmic Surveillance Unit was accepted as an associate member. In general, member surveillance units send out monthly, reply-paid report cards to pediatricians, who are asked to indicate whether they have seen any cases of the conditions listed. It is important that the card be short and easy to use in order to facilitate participation. Table 1 shows the characteristics and response rates of member units as of the end of 1999.