ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how databases in epidemiological population biobanks may be used to re-identify of individual donors, and what this would mean for the evaluation of risk to the donor. The information in the biobanks is based on biological tissues and other health data collected continuously from health records or based on one or several health screens or questionnaires. The risk is real enough and has been debated on several occasions with the data connected to the publishing of genetic material in for example biobanks like the Human Genome Project or other similar projects. In contrast to traditional research where one researcher works with a set of paper-based data, researchers in epidemiological biobanks are dependent on a large staff of experts in laboratory work, bioinformatics and system administration. The research data is digitalized and placed on a server in an electronic database.
