Philly woman surprised to find herself in Penn study

by Tom Avril

Published May 12, 2016, 2:14 p.m. ET

A Philadelphia woman with unusually high "good" cholesterol levels was the impetus for a University of Pennsylvania research study published this year.

But she did not realize that until after the research was described in a Philadelphia Inquirer article.

Like the study itself, the newspaper article mentioned a 67-year-old woman and her cholesterol levels without further identifying details. The Penn researchers described why high levels of HDL good cholesterol are not necessarily a benefit.

The woman did not initially think she was the unnamed patient.

Later she realized the study was indeed referring to her, after reading a second account of the research in Science magazine.

Should the study authors have notified her that her case was going to be in the news?

She describes her feelings here.