The Swedish personal identity number: possibilities and pitfalls in healthcare and medical research

Swedish health care and national health registers are dependent on the presence of a unique identifier. This paper describes the Swedish personal identity number (PIN) and explores ethical issues of its use in medical research. A ten-digit-PIN is maintained by the National Tax Board for all individuals that have resided in Sweden since 1947. Until January 2008, an estimated 75,638 individuals have changed PIN. The most common reasons for change...