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How to Use RCPCHGrowth in Research

It is common to need to calculate z-scores and centiles against children's growth measurements for datasets in research, and using the RCPCH API is not always possible, for example when operating inside a Secure Research Environment (SRE) or when working offline. The RCPCHGrowth python package can be installed inside a Trusted Research Environment or Secure Data Environment and the calculations can be run locally, using familiar tools like Jupyter Notebooks.

Getting Started

Python notebooks are popular as they combine Markdown-formatted text with computational tools like pandas and scipy or numpy.

The notebooks themselves are their own best documentation. To get them running there are two options: using Docker, or installing directly into your local Python environment.

Python Environment

Setting up a Python environment is discussed in detail here

Once a virtual environment has been created, RCPCHGrowth can be installed directly:

pip install rcpchgrowth['notebook']

The ['notebook'] is optional - it automatically installs all the notebook related dependencies. These are essential if you are planning to use the notebooks. If you already have these installed, you can simply:

pip install rcpchgrowth

To access the calculations within the RCPCHGrowth package, import it to access the functions in your .ipynb file.

import rcpchgrowth

Docker

The Docker setup helps you easily interact with the notebook examples provided by RCPCH. You will need Docker installed

Then from the command line:

s/up

This will create a container which will build RCPCHGrowth and in the console you can follow the link:

...
rcpchgrowth-dev  | [I 2025-08-17 15:32:27.147 ServerApp] jupyterlab | extension was successfully loaded.
rcpchgrowth-dev  | [I 2025-08-17 15:32:27.147 ServerApp] Serving notebooks from local directory: /app/notebooks
rcpchgrowth-dev  | [I 2025-08-17 15:32:27.147 ServerApp] Jupyter Server 2.16.0 is running at:
rcpchgrowth-dev  | [I 2025-08-17 15:32:27.147 ServerApp] http://7f2a9b1a289c:8888/lab
rcpchgrowth-dev  | [I 2025-08-17 15:32:27.147 ServerApp]     http://127.0.0.1:8888/lab
rcpchgrowth-dev  | [I 2025-08-17 15:32:27.147 ServerApp] Use Control-C to stop this server and shut down all kernels (twice to skip confirmation).
...

which will open the notebooks in your browser.