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AJPH First Look, published online ahead of print Feb 28, 2007
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April 2007, Vol 97, No. 4 | American Journal of Public Health 654-658
© 2007 American Public Health Association
DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2006.090902

HEALTH POLICY AND ETHICS

Patient Confidentiality in the Research Use of Clinical Medical Databases

Rajeev Krishna, PhD, Kelly Kelleher, MD, MPH and Eric Stahlberg, PhD

Rajeev Krishna and Kelly Kelleher are with the Columbus Children’s Research Institute, Columbus, Ohio, and the Ohio State University Medical Center, Columbus. Eric Stahlberg is with the Ohio Supercomputer Center, Columbus.

Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Kelly Kelleher, MD, MPH, Center for Innovation in Pediatric Practice, 700 Children’s Dr, Columbus, OH 43205 (e-mail: kellehek{at}ccri.net).

Electronic medical record keeping has led to increased interest in analyzing historical patient data to improve care delivery. Such research use of patient data, however, raises concerns about confidentiality and institutional liability. Institutional review boards must balance patient data security with a researcher’s ability to explore potentially important clinical relationships.

We considered the issues involved when patient records from health care institutions are used in medical research. We also explored current regulations on patient confidentiality, the need for identifying information in research, and the effectiveness of deidentification and data security. We will present an algorithm for researchers to use to think about the data security needs of their research, and we will introduce a vocabulary for documenting these techniques in proposals and publications.






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Copyright © 2007 by the American Public Health Association