A multidisciplinary approach to honest broker services for tissue banks and clinical data

Honest broker services are essential for tissue‐ and data‐based research. The honest broker provides a firewall between clinical and research activities. Clinical information is stripped of Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act‐denoted personal health identifiers. Research material may have linkage codes, precluding the identification of patients to researchers. The honest broker provides data derived from clinical and research sources. These data are for research use only, and there are rules in place that prohibit reidentification. Very rarely, the institutional review board (IRB) may allow recontact and develop a recontact plan with the honest broker. Certain databases are structured to serve a clinical and research function and incorporate ‘real‐time’ updating of information. This complex process needs resolution of a variety of issues regarding the precise role of the HB and their interaction with data. There also is an obvious need for software solutions to make the task of deidentification easier.

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