With so many awareness months in healthcare, it’s easy for meaningful observances to get lost in the shuffle of emails, ribbons, and reminders. But October stands out—it’s Patient-Centered Care Awareness Month, a time dedicated to honoring healthcare that truly listens to and respects the needs, values, and choices of patients across every setting where nurses lead. At the heart of nursing research and scholarship is this very commitment: advancing knowledge that improves patient outcomes and centers the human experience. Whether we are nurse scientists, DNP or PhD students, or faculty shaping the next generation of care, our work is often powered by clinical data. That’s why we’re excited to highlight recent updates to UW Medicine’s use of clinical data for research purposes — changes that will help fuel innovation, collaboration, and impact across our academic community.
What’s Changing?
All research related data sets involving UW Medicine Identified and/or De-Identified Clinical Data must be checked by a Neutral Intermediary or ‘Honest Broker’ to ensure the data set matches the approved IRB and the data set is accurately de-identified when applicable (see the definition of an Honest Broker below).
Honest Broker Options
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- Research IT can pull the data set and/or review an already pulled data set to ensure compliance with the approved IRB for a small fee
- Affiliated Developers or Analysts who have completed annual Honest Broker training and attested to the rules of the road can pull and/or check data sets for research
Two new Compliance Policies
307 Honest Broker Policy
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- Outlines the rules of the road for anyone acting as an Honest Broker
- Describes core principles, annual training requirements, and duties & responsibilities to assure compliant release of UW Medicine Clinia Data to researchers.
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306 Release of Clinical Data for Research Purposes
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- Describes the circumstances when UW Medicine may disclose Protected Health Information (PHI) for research purposes.
- Introduces the concept of “clinical data” that is broader than the definition of PHI and describes the centralized and values-based approach for reviewing and responding to requests to use or share UW Medicine clinical data for research.
- Describes research data stewardship obligations that fall outside patient privacy and security requirements, including UW Medicine institutional standards, the requirement to execute data use agreements, and how to report unforeseen events that involve data.
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Why Is This Changing?
Over the past few years, UW Medicine has closely examined how its clinical data is managed across the system. These assessments revealed opportunities for improving policies and processes that will improve data security and consistency. In response, UW Medicine launched the Honest Broker Program—a new initiative designed to strengthen data stewardship and reduce risk, while making it easier for researchers to access clinical data responsibly.
What is an Honest Broker?
An “Honest Broker” is a Neutral Intermediary—whether a person, software system, or team—who helps researchers access clinical data from UW Medicine patient records in a secure and compliant way. Acting under approved protocols and IRB authorization, the Honest Broker provides either identified or de-identified data in alignment with UW Medicine policies and privacy standards. Serving as a Neutral Intermediary between the clinical data system and the research team, the Honest Broker plays a critical role in maintaining HIPAA privacy and security while enabling responsible data use for research.
Honest Broker Toolkit for Researchers
Research IT has been working on developing an accessible repository for the research community including Data Use Agreement (DUA) templates, a how-to library with guides and checklists, registry lists (owners and data stewards), and language to include in new proposals. A specialized Epic integrated instance of REDCap is under development along with a growing tool library for a self-service option. More details about the Honest Broker Program can be found here UW Medicine Honest Broker Program, questions can be directed to Research Data Services ritdatahelp@uw.edu.
We hope this overview helps clarify the updated process for accessing UW Medicine clinical data and highlights the role of the Honest Broker Program in supporting secure, streamlined research. We’d like to also note that nurse-led research at UWMC should loop in the Supporting Practice Advancement, Research and Knowledge (SPARK) committee, led by Dr. Nancy Wiederhold who directs UWMC Clinical Nurse Research. As always, the Office of Nursing Research & Innovation is here to assist you in navigating these systems and advancing patient-centered research. Whether you’re exploring new questions, building interdisciplinary collaborations, or translating findings into practice, we look forward to partnering with you every step of the way.