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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 Sep 5.
Published in final edited form as: Clin Pharmacol Ther. 2008 May 21;84(3):362–369. doi: 10.1038/clpt.2008.89

Figure 4.

Figure 4

Mechanism for linking DNA samples and patient-related information in a de-identified fashion. The approach depends on the use of a one-way hash, an algorithm that always generates the same 128-character code (the research unique identifier, RUI) when the same medical record number is used as input. The medical record number on barcoded blood samples that are about to be discarded is scanned, eligible samples are relabeled with the RUI, and DNA is extracted and stored. The medical record number in each patient’s record is replaced by the RUI, and the record is de-identified to create the synthetic derivative described in the text.