Retrospective medical chart reviews also require approval by the Memorial Hermann Research Office when using Memorial Hermann Hospital or one of the MHHS community hospitals. Please contact Marianna Riggs at (713) 704-4256 for further information.

If you expect to use the electronic medial record at the Memorial Hermann Hospital, call their Information System Support Center at (713) 448-5370 to request a sign-on form.

Your request to the CPHS must contain the following information:

• the scientific question
• the rationale
• an estimate of the number of records to be reviewed and the time period to be covered
• the names of the persons conducting the reviews if other than yourself

Of particular importance:

If you will be abstracting patient personal identifiers (i.e., names, hospital numbers, social security numbers, etc.) indicate how confidentiality will be maintained (e.g., coded lists to be maintained by and available only to the PI, etc.). Please be sure and indicate if you will not be abstracting such identifiers.

Also, it is necessary to indicate whether you intend to contact the patient for purposes of follow-up. If so, you will be advised of appropriate mechanisms for doing this.