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Can I collect gender information from participants in Massachusetts? What are the requirements?

Based on the documents provided, there are no explicit requirements for collecting gender information from participants in Massachusetts. However, it is important to ensure that any information collected is done so in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.

Permitted Disclosure of De-identified Birth Information

If you are collecting birth information for research purposes, you may release de-identified birth information to authorized employees or authorized agents of the Department or the Executive Office of Health and Human Services for administrative, statistical or research purposes. You may also release de-identified birth information to any person upon request, subject to any applicable fees for requests for public records, and provided that the information is in a statistical format established by the Department and that the Department has already publicly released such data, except that a public health authority may receive such data prior to public release provided that the public health authority does not publish or otherwise release the data before the Department has publicly released the data [1.2].

Restrictions on Use and Disclosure of Confidential Birth Information for Research Purposes

If you are granted temporary use of confidential birth information for research purposes, you shall comply with the following restrictions on the use and disclosure of such information and any other restrictions or conditions imposed by the Commissioner in any particular case. Birth information shall be considered confidential. No person who is granted temporary use of confidential birth information for research purposes shall re-disclose, in any manner, any confidential birth information, except to other individuals named in the application to the Department and only for the purposes of furthering the research study as described in the application for temporary use of confidential birth information. Confidential birth information shall be used only for the purposes described in the application for temporary use of confidential birth information or any amendment to that application that is approved by the Commissioner. The principal investigator is responsible for limiting access to the confidential birth information to only those persons listed on the original or amended application as authorized persons to maintain or use confidential birth information or any other person authorized access to confidential birth information by the Commissioner. All individuals who will receive or use confidential birth information shall sign a pledge of confidentiality, on a form prescribed by the Commissioner, which the principal investigator shall submit to the Department as a condition for approval. No database linkages utilizing any confidential birth information shall be permitted unless authorized by the Commissioner. If the Commissioner approves temporary use of only de-identified confidential birth information, no person participating in the research study shall in any way attempt to identify or contact any of the data subjects or allow anyone else to identify or contact any of the data subjects. All publications or reports of analyses shall involve only aggregate data. No personally identifying information or other information which could foreseeably lead to the identification of any data subject shall ever be published or disclosed [1.5].

Therefore, you may collect gender information from participants in Massachusetts, but it must be done in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. If you are collecting birth information for research purposes, you may release de-identified birth information to authorized employees or authorized agents of the Department or the Executive Office of Health and Human Services for administrative, statistical or research purposes. However, if you are granted temporary use of confidential birth information for research purposes, you shall comply with the restrictions on the use and disclosure of such information and any other restrictions or conditions imposed by the Commissioner in any particular case [1.2][1.5].

Source(s):
Jurisdiction

Massachusetts