Janssens, Arne
Vaes, Bert
Abels, Chloé
Crèvecoeur, Jonas
Mamouris, Pavlos
Merckx, Barbara
Libin, Pieter
Van Pottelbergh, Gijs
Neyens, Thomas
Funding for this research was provided by:
MSD, Belgium
Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (1242021N)
Research council of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (OZR3863BOF)
Internal Funds KU Leuven (3M190682)
Article History
Received: 13 October 2022
Accepted: 19 May 2023
First Online: 7 June 2023
Declarations
:
: The Belgian Privacy Commission (no. SCSZG/13/079), “Informatieveiligheidscomité, Kamer sociale zekerheid en gezondheid”, and the ethical review board of the Medical School of the KU Leuven (no. ML 1723), “Ethische Commissie Onderzoek UZ/KU Leuven” (Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven), waived the requirement of informed consent and approved the INTEGO protocol [CitationRef removed, CitationRef removed].INTEGO uses an opt-out procedure for patients who do not wish their data to be included. All patients are informed about INTEGO procedures via a poster in the waiting room of the participating general practice centres and can inform via their general practitioner if they do not want their data to be exported to the INTEGO registry. All this was approved by the aforementioned Belgian Privacy Commission and ethical review board of the Medical School of the KU Leuven.Participant data were pseudonymized before use. All protocols are carried out in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations.
: Not applicable.
: Coauthors C.A. and B.M. are employees of MSD, Belgium. All other authors declare they have no competing interests.