In European Journal of Human Genetics, Health Care Attorneys Examine GDPR Challenges to Secondary Research Data Uses

In a peer review article published in Nature’s prestigious European Journal of Human Genetics, health care and life sciences partner Mark Barnes and associates David Peloquin and Michael DiMaio (all of Boston), analysed how the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has posed significant challenges to secondary uses of research data and associated biospecimens. 

The article examines the limitations inherent in the few pathways that GDPR makes available for secondary research, given that these paths rely upon complex and varied laws of individual European Union member states. The authors advocate for mitigation of these challenges through revised regulatory guidance in order to allow important scientific research to continue. This article builds on the authors’ previous pioneering commentary and analyses related to the complex issue of how the GDPR has affected scientific and clinical research.