Confidentiality

Will my taking part in this study be kept confidential?

Yes. Personal and identifiable information will be kept strictly confidential and will not be retained after the end of this study. The data collected during the research will be used for the purpose of this study. However, anonymous data from this study will be placed in the University of Cambridge repository (i.e. anonymised database) where it will be viewed by other researchers external to the University.

Will the information I provide be kept confidential?

Yes. All information that is collected about you during the course of this study will be kept strictly confidential and proceed in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018 and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR, 2018). All information will be anonymised and stored securely on a password protected database hosted at the University of Cambridge and separately from individual responses. The University of Cambridge is compliant with the information governance policy to store sensitive personal information (for more information about the confidentiality policy, see: / https://www.medschl.cam.ac.uk/research/information-governance/sdhs-security-policy / and: https://www.medschl.cam.ac.uk/research/information-governance/frequently-asked-questions /). It will not be possible for anyone to identify our particular responses. Access to the information will be restricted to the research team for the purposes of this research project.

Urine samples and blood samples will be fully anonymised before being sent to laboratories for analyses, so that it will not be possible for the laboratory staff to identify participants. The laboratory staff will assess urine sample for concentration of anti-hypertensive and the blood samples for HbA1c and/or cholesterol levels. After analysis, the laboratory staff will send the anonymised results directly to the research team. Blood and urine samples will not be retained after analysis. Only members of the research team will have access to the analysed data. All procedures involved in the blood sample analysis will comply with the Human Tissue Act 2004.

Your general practice will be informed about your participation in this study but won’t have access to the individual data you provide. All information provided via text message or mobile phone app will be kept on a secure University of Cambridge data server hosted in the Clinical School Computing Service.

Express of interest to take part in this study will be obtained using ‘Qualtrics’, which is a secure system hosted by the University of Cambridge. Computer IP addresses will be identified but will not be retained. During the consultation, the practitioner will respond to any questions you may have and obtain written informed consent.

The University of Cambridge and the NHS Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) are the co-sponsors for this study based in the United Kingdom. The University of Cambridge will keep your name, contact details and other information from you and your medical records (e.g., prescribed medications) in order to undertake this study and will act as the data controller for this study. This means that we are responsible for looking after your information and using it properly. The research team at the University of Cambridge will use this information as needed, to contact you about the research study, and make sure that relevant information about the study is recorded for your care, and to oversee the quality of the study. Certain individuals from the co-sponsor and regulatory organisations may look at your medical and research records to check the accuracy of the research study. Co-sponsors and regulatory organisations will only receive information without any identifying information. The people who receive the information will not be able to identify you and will not be able to find out your name, contact details or other personal and identifiable information. Cambridge University will keep identifiable information about you after the study has finished for the purposes of analysis.

Your rights to access, change or move your information are limited, as we need to manage your information in specific ways in order for the research to be reliable and accurate. If you withdraw from the study, we will keep the information about you that we have already obtained. To safeguard your rights, we will use the minimum personally-identifiable information possible. You can find out more about how we use your information at https://www.medschl.cam.ac.uk/research/privacy-notice-how-we-use-your-research-data /. If you require more information about the practice of confidentiality, please contact the research team by email at pam@medschl.cam.ac.uk.

If I use the app, what information is collected and how this is kept confidential?

The information you provide during the practice consultation (e.g. your prescribed medications) will be transferred to the app using encrypted internet files. When you download the app, this information will automatically inform the content of your personalised reminders. For example, if you are prescribed amlodipine 5mg and you agree with your health care providers to be reminded about this medication, the app will send you notifications like ‘have you taken your amlodipine yet? Please reply with ‘yes’ or ‘no’ . This message will be sent at the time you usually take this medication (please see some example screenshots of the app notifications at the end of this information sheet). The responses you provide to the app notifications will be stored in the app at your mobile device. The app will also collect information about the Wi-Fi you are logging in, it will also collect accelerometer and location information. This information will be collected to test the practicality to tailor the SMS/app messages to peoples’ routines. All information collected by the app will be stored into the app only. The app will not have functionalities that link your data to any other apps or other social media service (e.g. facebook). All information collected by the app will be sent to the Cambridge University servers using encrypted internet files, for the purposes of analysis, and will be deleted from your device after that point.