All ethical and data security principles have been applied following current standards of data protection and confidentiality. No identification of patients' personal information is made available. No individually identifiable data is shared with the researchers (i.e., data is "anonymized"). Researchers sign a legal agreement not to make any attempt to identify participants. Research projects applying for access to the HCFMUSP institutional databases must be approved in advance by the Ethics Committee of the institution to which the researcher is affiliated.

The sharing of data and samples for additional research studies is conditional on the strict need for confidentiality of individual participants’ data and samples. Access to our institutional data and samples requires agreement from the researcher in assuming their ethical and legal responsibility. Individually identifiable data is never released.