Research volunteers who disclose criminal activity, disease status, or other sensitive information as part of a scientific investigation will receive automatic confidentiality protections under a federal policy change.
The National Institutes of Health is streamlining the process for issuing Certificates of Confidentiality (CoCs), a document that protects researchers from disclosing the names or other identifying characteristics of research subjects in response to a subpoena or other legal demands, The NIH has typically issued them on an ad hoc basis. Under a Sept. 7 notice (NOT-OD-17-109), the NIH said it will apply the confidentiality protections to all studies using ...