PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Vladimir Carli
AU  - Gergö Hadlaczky
AU  - Camilla Wasserman
AU  - Nicola Stingelin-Giles
AU  - Stella Reiter-Theil
AU  - Danuta Wasserman
TI  - Maintaining confidentiality in prospective studies: anonymous repeated measurements via email (ARME) procedure
AID  - 10.1136/jme.2011.044552
DP  - 2012 Feb 01
TA  - Journal of Medical Ethics
PG  - 127--129
VI  - 38
IP  - 2
4099  - http://jme.bmj.com/content/38/2/127.short
4100  - http://jme.bmj.com/content/38/2/127.full
SO  - J Med Ethics2012 Feb 01; 38
AB  - 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.