Privacy and Confidentiality

Privacy

Participant anonymity and confidentiality are guaranteed throughout the study. All research and studies associated with the MSOD Project comply with the Privacy Act 1988 (and future amendments), and the National Privacy Principles (APPs) and Australian Privacy Principles guidelines which apply from March 2014. Copies of these documents can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website (https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy-law/). Personal information will be kept confidential and data will be stored and managed in a de-identified form by the Australian Health of Institute and Welfare (AIHW).

Consent

Participation in this project is entirely voluntary. The data collected through the MSOD Project will be published each year in the MSOD National Data Report . Further analysis may be done by Medical Deans, government agencies or other researchers with the appropriate ethical clearance and in accordance with our Data Access Policy. Data analysis will be conducted using protocols that ensure strict privacy and security of the data and reports will never identify individuals. Consent to complete the MSOD survey is provided by the participant via a tick box at the start of the questionnaire. Participants can withdraw their consent to continue to participate in the MSOD Project at any time by contacting Medical Deans office on 02 8084 6557 or admin@medicaldeans.org.au.

Ethics

In accordance with the ethics requirements of Australian universities, an ethics application has been lodged and approved at each of the participating universities in the MSOD project. An ethics file number is assigned to the approved application at each university and is provided below. Should you like to learn more about the local ethics processes, make an enquiry or lodge a complaint please refer to the appropriate website below and quote the unique ethics file number for the relevant university.