How does Brain-CODE handle MRI data?

Owned by Sara Latour (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Oct 20, 2020 by Emily Martens
1 min read

  • A component of the magnetic resonance image (MRI) that captures a high-resolution 3-dimensional (3D) grey coloured image of the participant’s face and head is considered to be Personal Health Information.

  • These images are important for some types of analysis by the investigators, so they will be input into Zone 1 of Brain-CODE where only the researcher who obtained the participant’s consent, and their collaborators can access them.

  • Before this image can be accessed by researchers outside of this study, it will be “de-faced” in the transition from Zone 1 to Zone 2 on Brain-CODE. This means that the pixels in the high-resolution 3D image that correspond to the participant’s facial features are deleted.

Some older consent forms stated that identifiable data will not be uploaded to Brain-CODE. However, the understanding of identifiable data at the time the consent forms were written included text-based identifiable data such as the participant’s name and address, which will not be sent to Brain-CODE. Identifiable in these older consent forms was not meant to refer to these high-resolution 3D images.

The Ontario Brain Institute has worked with investigators to clarify this with the Research Ethics Boards (REBs): This was confirmed with the REBs prior to allowing any data to be uploaded to Brain-CODE.

If you have any questions, please contact governance@braincode.ca.

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