How not to contact the dead

Failure to correctly determine which of your research participants have died before you contact them is distressing both for the family and the researcher involved. For this reason it has become recognised practice in the UK to ascertain vital status prior to any telephone or postal correspondence. As a primary care physician relatively new to research I was surprised to learn that despite the necessity of the task, there is currently no consensus on the best way for a researcher to find out whether someone is dead or alive. Accessing the death certificate from the Medical Research Information Service (MRIS) is one means of following up the vital status of a participant. It is an attractive option since it has the advantage of also providing the date and cause(s) of death.1 This process is ideal in carrying out long-term follow-up. However, since information from MRIS arrives periodically there is a window of uncertainty within which the participant may have …