tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4201874739367831894.post9126163868458981679..comments2024-03-28T01:46:02.526-05:00Comments on Healthcare Exchange Standards: Anonymizing patient records for genomicsJohn Moehrkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04526719420117446030noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4201874739367831894.post-30083689686278591712010-04-13T21:36:12.657-05:002010-04-13T21:36:12.657-05:00Yes a good pseudonym generator that assigns what l...Yes a good pseudonym generator that assigns what looks like random strings and doesn't actually have a pattern to it should be used. But a pseudonym is only needed if one needs to link data across multiple instances in time. In the above case they simply want a flash of the data at a given time, so they don't even need a pseudonym.<br /><br />What has been cracked multiple times is that many mistakes have been made through leaving in too much information. It is amazing what someone using public information can do to re-identify very little information. Unfortunately healthcare is very specific to sex, age and physical environment which turns out is enough information.<br /><br />This is why I was glad that in the case given, they really looked at what they minimally needed to know and stuck with that only. They then did risk assessment to further work through issues. Neither of these steps is common, especially the second.John Moehrkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04526719420117446030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4201874739367831894.post-80643862134644583362010-04-13T10:08:23.537-05:002010-04-13T10:08:23.537-05:00I heard an interesting discussion on deidentifying...I heard an interesting discussion on deidentifying data last week. An investigator said his interpretation of the law is that a randomly generated identifier is the only way to guarantee anonymity -- that other algorithms can (and have been) hacked. At the same time, that still may not be enough to mask a patient with a rare genetic disease, as above.Katehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04235249326004805772noreply@blogger.com