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Group Health Center for Health Studies E-mail Privacy Statement

Some research studies at Group Health Center for Health Studies offer study participants the option of communicating with research project staff via electronic mail (e-mail) over the Internet.

If you have an Internet e-mail address and would like to take advantage of this service, please be aware of the following risks:

1. Multiple people may have access to a single e-mail account, including your family members. Your employer may have the right to look at any messages sent to your office e-mail address. You may wish to have the study staff person respond to you at a different address.
2. E-mail may be inadvertently sent to the wrong address.
3. Messages may be edited and/or forwarded to others without the original author's knowledge or permission.
4. E-mail is not guaranteed to be read by the addressee within a specified time period, but project staff will make every effort to read messages within three days. If the staff person is on vacation, you may receive a message reporting this to you.
5. Messages sent via the Internet cannot be considered confidential but are handled as confidential once received by the research project staff.

In addition, please observe the following rules:

1. E-mail may not be used to communicate emergencies or urgent messages. If you are experiencing a sudden or severe change in your health, or otherwise need an immediate response, please contact your primary health care provider's office by telephone.
2. Please do not use e-mail to send or request very sensitive information. Group Health cannot and does not guarantee the confidentiality of any messages being sent over the Internet.
3. It is helpful to include your full name in the body of the message, not the subject line. This helps protect your privacy.
4. If you do not receive a response in a timely manner, you should call the study office. A study staff person may be out of the office and unable to respond to e-mail. Someone else from the project staff may be able to help you.
5. Medically relevant e-mail messages are kept in locked study files and will not be included in your permanent medical record without your consent.

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