Constant Content

Hi Everyone,
I've been writing for a couple weeks and enjoy all the valuable information on the forum. Thanks for answering the myriad of questions I had.

One issue I haven't seen is whether the use of pseudonyms is permitted. I am working on a lenghty article about health care costs and want to include some actual figures for certain procedures and diseases. Several friends kindly passed on their medical records for use in the article, but because of privacy concerns I don't want to use their real names.

Any suggestions on how to handle this and still let the reader know these are real people and credible medical costs?

Thanks for any input.

Yep! I use my gamer name.

I see two possibilities:
1 - Don't disclose that it's a pseudonym - their actual name is irrelevant to the content, so it shouldn't matter to the reader
2 - Take the newspaper route and include in the article that "Jim Doe, who requested his real name be withheld, was shocked when he began spontaneously sneezing adult weasels." or just "Jim, who requested that his full name be withheld, was the first case in the Western world of the Midas Syndrome, in which his internal organs slowly began turning into gold."

I think #2 lends more credibility - after all, would a fictional character ask for their name to be withheld?