The Trusted Research Environments for Medical Information Utilization in Scotland

Abstract

This article explores the Scottish success in secondary usage of medical records for research after overcoming the difficulties which were parallel to the Japanese counterparts The difficulties derived from the legal condition that protect personal information; researchers could receive only the certified anonymous processing medical information, which sometime hinders researchers conducting a project that needs further information than fully anonymized This invites another challenge to earn relevant experience of linking medical information with the data from other fields In Scotland, in contrast, Five Safes Model and Trusted Research Environment have developed whereby promoting research that uses linkage data between medical and other fields of information These two systems have met the public interest and trust as well as the legal requirement to protect personal information, i.e., GDPR. Their system hence can be useful when considering measures to promote the use of medical information in Japan.