Chunk #33 — PART II. CORE QUESTIONS — C. What Design Options Are Open to Biobanks to Handle IFs & IRRs? Designing to Allow or to Avoid Re-identification
and prohibits researchers from attempting to re-identify contributors (such as BioVU) cannot return IFs and IRRs.38,39 As Pulley et al. note38 (pp42, 48) BioVU is “one of few biobanks” set up to conduct “nonhuman subjects research” and “the design explicitly precludes recontact with any individual.” While re-identification may not be literally impossible40 and DHHS has recently noted that advancing technology may make de-identified data re-identifiable,2(p62) BioVU is deliberately designed to block re-identification.
