The Honest Broker process is a valuable tool in protecting the confidentiality of patients' data while still allowing for meaningful research to be conducted. This process provides a firewall between the research team and the subjects' identifiable information, ensuring that sensitive data is kept secure.
Research administration provides an honest broker and data acquisition services to assist in data collection for research studies. The honest broker is an expert in clinical data models, and provides de-identified datasets to researchers from the electronical medical record (EMR), and ensures that each request contains only the data necessary for that particular research study.
The Role of the Honest Broker
The Honest Broker is responsible for generating a data set using the Research Tenant and codifying/stripping identifiers. The end result is a fully de-identified data set or a limited data set, depending on the needs of the research project.
Confidentiality and Protection
The Honest Broker provides coded data to the research team, but not the method to decode the data. This adds a layer of protection and enhances the confidentiality of patients' data. Researchers can request additional information using the code, but they are unable to access the actual identities of the subjects.
Benefits of the Honest Broker Process
The Honest Broker process provides numerous benefits, including:
- Improved confidentiality and protection of patients' data
- A firewall between the research team and the subjects' identifiable information
- Ability to conduct meaningful research while still keeping sensitive information secure
Overall, the Honest Broker process is an effective solution for ensuring the confidentiality and protection of patients' data while still allowing for meaningful research to be conducted.
Honest Broker Process
What do researchers need to know?
- The honest broker serves as an intermediary between the investigator and patient identification.
- An honest broker must be completely independent of the research team; they cannot serve as a co-investigator. The honest broker provides researchers with de-identified datasets but does not analyze data.
- Researchers must submit an application to the Honest Broker management system (hosted in REDCap) before receiving a data set.
Unlock the power of secure and confidential research with the Honest Broker process.
To see if your project is a good fit for our system, take the first step and fill out our simple qualification form today:
Does This Activity Qualify for the Honest Broker System?