(a) Reports, records, and other information collected by, or provided to the department relating to persons known to have, or suspected of having a birth defect are confidential records and not public information and may not be released except as described in subsection (b) of this section. The confidential records include medical and other information obtained as part of epidemiologic or other investigations and the records and information gathered as part of the operation of the central registry.
(b) The department may release demographic, medical, epidemiological, or toxicological information:
  (1) for statistical purposes, if released in a manner that prevents the identification of any person;
  (2) with the consent of each person identified in the information or, if the person is unable to consent or is a minor, the minor's parents, managing conservator, guardian, or other person who is legally authorized to consent;
  (3) to medical personnel, appropriate state agencies, health authorities, regional directors, and public officers of counties and municipalities relating to the identification, monitoring, and referral of children with birth defects;
  (4) to appropriate federal agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the United States Public Health Service;
  (5) to medical personnel to the extent necessary to protect the health or life of the child identified in the information; or
  (6) to medical researchers conducting bona fide medical research under the conditions described in §37.306 of this title (relating to Access to Information in the Central Registry), and Health and Safety Code, §87.063.

Source Note: The provisions of this §37.304 adopted to be effective October 20, 1994, 19 TexReg 8032; amended to be effective August 28, 2003, 28 TexReg 6854; amended to be effective December 12, 2005, 30 TexReg 8291; amended to be effective November 4, 2009, 34 TexReg 7649