Research and Health Privacy

As an institution of higher education, Marquette engages in significant research, some of which uses or requires personal health information. Federal and state law protected and regulated the use of personal health information in research even before the passage of HIPAA. The Privacy Rules recognize that legitimate, ethical research may require the use of some personal health information, e.g., demographic information such as the age of a subject may be directly relevant to the research question. Therefore, the Privacy Rules provide for protection of personal health information used in research through appropriate privacy protocols approved by the institution's Institutional Review Board. See a fuller explanation of the process for protection of personal health information in the conduct of research.