Anonymization procedure Clause Samples

Anonymization procedure. In order to reach data anonymization, The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA, 1996) refers to two approaches to the de-identification: de-identification to a statistical standard; and de-identification by removal of 18 specific identifiers. For reason of feasibility in the neuGRID project we adopt the removal of the identifiers. In the selection of the identifiers that need to be removed we aim to balance between guarding patient confidentiality and considering the needs of research which is performed to achieve results that will be beneficial to the medical community and the humankind. The suggested list results from the consideration of the HIPAA list1 of identifiers that must be removed, revised to guarantee the research quality, in particular at the point C) related to “elements of dates”. 1 The HIPAA list of identifiers is the following: (A) Names; (B) All geographic subdivisions smaller than a State, including street address, city, county, precinct, zip code, and their equivalent geocodes, except for the initial three digits of a zip code if, according to the current publicly available data from the Bureau of the Census: (1) The geographic unit formed by combining all zip codes with the same three initial digits contains more than 20,000 people; and (2) The initial three digits of a zip code for all such geographic units containing 20,000 or fewer people is changed to 000.