Balancing the scales of public interest: medical research and privacy

Guidelines for the protection of privacy in the conduct of medical research have been issued by the National Health and Medical Research Council, approved by the Commonwealth Privacy Commissioner, and gazetted on 1 July 1991 (Commonwealth of Australia Gazette No. P19) to remain in force until 30 June 1994. This paper examines the guidelines and seeks to inform researchers, institutional ethics committees and the institutions those committees represent of their content. Responsibilities are placed upon those engaged in the conduct of research and those involved in undertaking ethical review who now have to decide that the public interest in conducting the research substantially outweighs the public interest in privacy. There is also an emphasis on the requirement for surveillance of research projects by institutional ethics committees which has not previously been apparent. Questions are posed to assist in deciding whether a particular research protocol is subject to the guidelines.