Privacy
The CHeReL is a dedicated record linkage facility that reduces the need for release of names and other personal information to researchers and helps protect the privacy of individuals. A major reason for the release of names to researchers is to find, and manually link information on patients. This becomes unnecessary in the case of routinely collected health data because the record linkage facility performs the record linkage and the researcher receives only unnamed information that has been approved by the ethics committee for the project.
CHeReL databases are held in a secure environment in accordance with NSW Government statutory requirements.
Personal information held by the CHeReL is used only in accordance with privacy laws, and in accordance with any conditions placed on the use of personal information by the database owners and human research ethics committees. Only staff of the CHeReL that are carrying out record linkage work have access to personal information. While the CHeReL holds personal information, such as name and address, it does not hold health information, which stays with the original database.
The CHeReL operates in compliance with relevant laws, regulations and guidelines including:
Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 (NSW)
Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 (NSW)
NSW Health Privacy Manual, Version 2, 2005
NSW Health Electronic Information Security Policy, Version 1, 2005
NHMRC National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research, 2007