BMJ  2004;328:1437 (12 June), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7453.1437-a

Letter

Data protection, informed consent, and research

Interpretation of legislation should reflect patients' views

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—Peto et al report the result of a vote at a public meeting whose audience included the general public, patient support groups and cancer charities, doctors, nurses, and public health workers.1 All of them, except the general public, have a professional interest in medical research. As a group of medical students, we undertook an epidemiological study building on previous studies exploring patients' views about confidentiality with regard to general practice medical records.2 3 In addition, we studied public knowledge and opinion about the use of medical records for research purposes.

The study was carried out between February and April 2004 at two general practices in England (Birmingham and Blackburn). A total of 200 questionnaires were given to consecutive patients at each centre. The questionnaire was designed to elicit patients' knowledge of who is able to access their medical records, who they think should be able to, and whether they . . . [Full text of this article]

Jonathan Fletcher, medical student

EF184@bham.ac.uk

Joanna Marriott, medical student

Medical School, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT

David Phillips, medical student

Medical School, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT


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Relevant Article

Data protection, informed consent, and research
Julian Peto, Olivia Fletcher, and Clare Gilham
BMJ 2004 328: 1029-1030. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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