Research on health services and policy, population and public health depends heavily on the ready availability of large volumes of existing data about people. Such data include health surveys; hospital, physician and laboratory records; provincial and federal billing and registration data; birth and death certificates; vital statistics; socio-demographic data; and, employment records.

CIHR has developed a series of case studies involving secondary use of data. The objective of this initiative was to help demonstrate in concrete terms: the purpose of specific research studies; the rationale for undertaking them; the potential health benefits they can lead to or have led to; what information is required at what level of identifiability and for what purpose; how the information required is actually collected, used and disclosed; how consent is obtained and in what form; where consent is not obtained, an explanation of why not; what security measures are implemented to protect the data; how long data is retained, for what purposes and under what conditions.

It is hoped that these case studies will serve as an opportunity for non-health researchers to better understand the inherent complexities of research, as well as an opportunity for health researchers themselves to exchange on proposed best practices.

• Secondary Use of Personal Information in Health Research: Case Studies, November 2002

All Privacy and Confidentiality in Health Research documents are available at the Ethics Resources and Publications section of the CIHR Website.