Use of Existing Health Data in Epidemiologic Research–Issues of Informed Consent Under Normal Circumstances and at a Time of Health Crises

Use of Existing Health Data in Epidemiologic Research–Issues of Informed Consent Under Normal Circumstances and at a Time of Health Crises

Author Info

Corresponding Author
Carsten Obel
Professor, Department of Public Health, Aarhus University, Denmark

A B S T R A C T

In epidemiologic research we study why we get sick and how we get better. To do this we frequently need large datasets on exposure, diagnoses, treatment and more. We need data often classified as sensitive and regulated by law stating a need for informed consent. We argue that modern epidemiologic research often can be done on existing data without having informed consent and without violating basic ethic principles. We also argue for a timely and fair access to data in approved project. Modern encryption technics and methods of data analyses can reduce the risk of disclosure of personal data to a level close to what we have for anonymous data. If we allow open use of administrative health data and existing research data, we will be able to produce much more information to advance disease prevention, health promotion and treatment. Epidemiologists should collaborate more with computer scientists and patient groups in developing/implementing principles for ‘modern methods of data analyses’. Under a severe health crisis data are in high demand to provide the information needed to prevent deaths and diseases and often time does not permit requiring ‘informed consent’. Such a situation in now plying out worldwide under the Covid-19 pandemic.

Article Info

Article Type
Research Article
Publication history
Received: Tue 19, May 2020
Accepted: Sat 06, Jun 2020
Published: Fri 26, Jun 2020
Copyright
© 2023 Carsten Obel. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Hosting by Science Repository.
DOI: 10.31487/j.COR.2020.06.09