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Barbara Fox

Publications and source records attributed to Barbara Fox.

3 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

A privacy challenge to longitudinal study methods: patient-derived codes.

Recent changes to privacy legislation in Australia have resulted in more stringent requirements with respect to maintaining the confidentiality of patient health information. We describe a method employed to de-identify health information collected in a longitudinal study using codes. Using a patient-derived code that did not change during the life of the study follow-up resulted in errors in a quarter of the follow-up surveys. This may introduce bias that could compromise the validity of the study. Alternative methods of coding may alleviate some of these issues. However, removal of some of the constraints imposed by interpretations of privacy legislation may be the best way forward.

Cohort Studies↗
PubMed2002

Human therapeutic cocaine vaccine: safety and immunogenicity.

This randomized, double blind, placebo controlled, phase I clinical trial assessed the safety and immunogenicity of a therapeutic cocaine vaccine TA-CD in 34 former cocaine abusers: 8 at 13 microg active vaccine, 10 at 82 microg and 10 at 709 microg, with two additional subjects getting placebo in each cohort. All got intra-muscular injections at 0-2 months and were monitored for safety and antibody production for 3 months. Of the 34 subjects 27 completed the full course of three injections, of these, only 24 returned for the final scheduled visit at day 84. The vaccine was well-tolerated and had no serious drug-related adverse events, although three subjects at the highest dose experienced brief post injection twitching. Fifteen subjects on TA-CD therapeutic vaccine were followed for 1 year. Antibody levels were correlated with vaccine dose and number of injections. Anti-cocaine antibodies were detected after the second injection, peaked at 3 months and declined to baseline by 1 year. Thus, the therapeutic vaccine was well tolerated with dose related increases in antibody levels, and a high proportion of patients recruited into the study were retained.

Adolescent↗