TY - JOUR T1 - Maintaining confidentiality in prospective studies: anonymous repeated measurements via email (ARME) procedure JF - Journal of Medical Ethics JO - J Med Ethics SP - 127 LP - 129 DO - 10.1136/jme.2011.044552 VL - 38 IS - 2 AU - Vladimir Carli AU - Gergö Hadlaczky AU - Camilla Wasserman AU - Nicola Stingelin-Giles AU - Stella Reiter-Theil AU - Danuta Wasserman Y1 - 2012/02/01 UR - http://jme.bmj.com/content/38/2/127.abstract N2 - Respecting and protecting the confidentiality of data and the privacy of individuals regarding the information that they have given as participants in a research project is a cornerstone of complying with accepted research standards. However, in longitudinal studies, establishing and maintaining privacy is often challenging because of the necessity of repeated contact with participants. A novel internet-based solution is introduced here, which maintains privacy while at the same time ensures linkage of data to individual participants in a repeated measures design. With the use of the anonymous repeated measurements via email (ARME) procedure, two separate one-way communication systems are established through ad hoc email accounts and a secure study website. Strengths and limitations of the approach are discussed. ER -