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Privacy & Data

Building Public Trust in De-Identified Health Data

The aim of this paper is to summarize concerns with the de-identification standard and methodologies established under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations, and report some potential policies to address those concerns that were discussed at a recent workshop attended by industry, consumer, academic and research stakeholders.

HIPAA sets forth methodologies for de-identifying health data; once such data are de-identified, they are no longer subject to HIPAA regulations and can be used for any purpose. Concerns have been raised about the sufficiency of HIPAA de-identification methodologies, the lack of legal accountability for unauthorized reidentification of de-identified data, and insufficient public transparency about de-identified data uses. Although there is little published evidence of the re-identification of properly de-identified datasets, such concerns appear to be increasing.

This article discusses policy proposals intended to address de-identification concerns while maintaining de-identification as an effective tool for protecting privacy and preserving the ability to leverage health data for secondary purposes.

This article was first published online in the Journal of American Medical Informatics Association, June 26, 2012