[Use of medical treatment data outside of the patient supply: best way pseudonymisation].

The use of data pending during the patient supply to research, quality assurance as also to education is desirable. However, this use is not allowed in every German federal land without approval of the patient. Just in the case of retrospective research an approval of the patient is often not to be received. For the use of medical routine data for the research the pseudonymisation is good therefore. Pseudonymisation is a procedure by which all person-related data within a data record is replaced by one artificial identifier. Therefore pseudonymisation facilitates the linking of medical data and the data identifying the patient only under certain, before defined and controllable conditions. Through that medical data can be passed on to third party without this third party being able to identify the person who the medical data belong to. Under consideration of the present possibilities of the information technology as also the available technical preparations for the use of the pseudonymisation and the advantages being inherent in the pseudonymisation the pseudonymisation represents the method of choice during the use of data of the patient supply to the research, quality assurance as well as education. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.