[Quo Vadis Data Linkage in Germany? An Initial Inventory].

In recent years, linking different data sources, also called data linkage or record linkage, to address scientific questions, is being increasingly used in Germany. However, there are very few published reports and new projects develop the necessary tools independently of each other. Therefore, a team of researchers joined together to exchange their experiences on data linkage and to give suggestions on how linkage could be done for scientists, reviewers as well as members of data privacy boards and ethics committees. It is the aim of this article to assist future projects that want to link German data on an individual level. In addition to the legal framework conditions (data privacy), also examples of types of data linkage, their fields of application und potential pitfalls as well as the methods of preventing them will be described in an application-oriented fashion.