“As healthcare organizations continue to collect more and more patient data across the spectrum of care, there is a rapidly growing need to access and use this treasure trove of data to solve some of healthcare’s most challenging problems,” writes Privacy Analytics Vice President of Professional Services Geordie Chester. Big data research has the capability of helping to solve some of healthcare’s most pressing issues, he writes, but ensuring patient privacy is protected and that secondary use is properly de-identified are the keys to unlocking this potential. In this post for Privacy Perspectives, Chester argues the two main barriers to this reside in a “lack of clear industry-accepted de-identification standards” and “of a sufficient number of trained and certified experts” to ensure data is appropriately de-identified. Editor’s Note: The IAPP Resource Center has a page dedicated to research and guidance on de-identification. You can find it here.
Full Story