Ethical and legal considerations in a Swiss study on the quality of pharmacotherapy in the city of Basel.
We describe a study on the quality of pharmacotherapy that included downloading electronic records in pharmacies and obtaining other information from the Public Sickness Fund in Basel, Switzerland. Legal and ethical considerations were discussed with and approved by the Internal Review Board of the university clinics through which the project was organized. Technical procedures were used to assure anonymity of the records during data collection and for the analysis. Completion of the records through links with personal data could be performed using a legally required process for quality assurance of the Public Sickness Fund.
Bruppacher
R
R
Section of Pharmacoethology and Pharmacoeconomics, Department of Pharmacy, University of Basel, Switzerland. rudolf.bruppacher@hin.ch
Kaeser
Y
Y
D004358:Drug Therapy / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D017891:Pharmacoepidemiology / Q000592:standards*; D018907:Privacy / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012106:Research / Q000592:standards; D013557:Switzerland / Q000453:epidemiology