The datasets across CO-CONNECT have data that can be linked to other healthcare records. Retaining this capability is important as researchers understand more about the disease. As has been shown, pre-existing health conditions, ethnicity, gender and vaccination status all can impact how researchers should interpret the immune response to COVID-19. Pseudonymisation allows the Data Partners to reduce the risk of identification whilst still maintaining the possibility to link to other data. Data is also continuously being collected for some Data Partners, therefore, there is a clear desire to keep updating the datasets as new information becomes available. The decision to link or add data and the permission to link or add data to other datasets is maintained by each Data Partner.
