title: Variation in caesarean section rates in the US: outliers, damned outliers, and statistics.
abstract: Gordon C. Smith discusses the study by Katy Kozhimannil and colleagues that examines variations in cesarean section rates in the US and argues for the need for high-quality routine data collection to better understand the reasons for these variations. Please see later in the article for the Editors' Summary.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom; NIHR Cambridge Comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Gordon C S
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Smith
mesh_terms: D002585:Cesarean Section / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007744:Obstetric Labor Complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011247:Pregnancy