Developing an Ethical and Legal Interoperability Assessment Process for Retrospective Studies.

Abstract

The past decade has witnessed the creation of major international research consortia, aiming to facilitate the sharing of data from different studies to maximize health benefits. However, combining heterogeneous data across existing studies requires addressing issues related to both data harmonization and ethical and legal interoperability. This article proposes a rigorous interoperability assessment process to assess whether different data sets are sufficiently ethically and legally interoperable to allow for a given proposed research use. The methodology used to develop this process is based on a comprehensive analysis of the international ethical and legal framework governing the use of retrospective data in research, and includes the following steps: (I) finding existing processes; (II) comparing processes to identify similarities and differences and determining the limits of the "consistent whole"; (III) establishing common principles and procedures; and, (IV) changing or removing processes that do not contribute to the consistent whole. Each of these four steps were examined using step-specific methodologies, including (a) literature and policy reviews; (b) consultations with international ethical, legal and social implications (ELSI) experts; and (c) a case study piloting the proposed framework in an actual international research consortium. This assessment process takes into account key legal and ethical components such as consent, recontact, and waiver of consent. As a result, this analysis allows the development of a comprehensive filter used to verify the legal and ethical restrictions pertaining to a data set. This in turns helps in determining whether the given data set can to be used for a proposed research project, or is ethically and legally interoperable for use in research collaborations. By integrating this filter to the regular data access processes used by cohorts, not only will researchers be able to create virtual "mega-cohorts" of research participants, but it will also ensure that these cohorts respect basic legal and ethical precepts.