“[Human research] Projects that work with anonymised data sets or anonymised samples do not require authorisation. While researchers do work with health-related data of human beings, the data can no longer be assigned to the specific individual.”
Anonymised data sets
Projects that do not require authorisation always use anonymised data sets. In other words, the analysed data can no longer be assigned to a specific person.
Right to dissent with regard to anonymisation
Donors of biological material or genetic data are informed about the anonymisation in advance. If they do not file an objection, further use for research purposes can be made of their samples or data. All persons have the option of refusing to allow any further use of their samples or data. No prior notification is necessary in the case of studies with non-genetic data.
Foregoing anonymisation
Data donors can also deliberately forego anonymisation of their data in order to benefit from any possible study findings. In that case, however, they have to participate in a study that requires authorisation, as only these types of projects are permitted to work with non-anonymised data.
Human research projects that do not require authorisation
Projects that work with anonymised data sets or anonymised samples do not require authorisation. Donors of biological material or genetic data are informed about the anonymisation. They have the option of refusing to allow any use of their data by filing an objection to the anonymisation and thus to the further use of their data.
Other projects that do not require authorisation
Other examples of projects that do not require authorisation include case studies on individual persons that result in no generalisable findings and studies that do not concern either diseases or basic research. Whether field reports, quality assurance projects or academic qualification works require authorisation needs to be assessed on a case-by-case basis.
http://www.kofam.ch/en/applications-and-procedure/projects-that-do-not-require-authorisation/