Strengthening the digital infrastructure of healthcare organizations requires complexity and massive investment. From building complex technology stacks to technological enhancements, navigating bottlenecks is a challenge. With healthcare data considered one of the most sensitive data, the onus is on healthcare stakeholders to ensure optimal compliance and confidentiality of healthcare data. The obligations have become even more complex with the passage of the landmark EU AI Act and HIPAA and GDPR regulations, which aim to set global standards for addressing and mitigating opportunities and threats related to AI and data.
But there is good news.
By implementing standardized frameworks and protocols, healthcare organizations can ensure that patient data is secure and interoperable with other authorized partners as they see fit. This is where data de-identification comes in and entails a paradigm shift in the operating culture of healthcare organizations.
Now that you know the basics of data anonymization, this article will take a broad look at the different data anonymization or data anonymization techniques and how to implement a thorough strategy to further enhance them.
Anonymization parameters for HIPAA compliance
To ensure optimal safety, security, and privacy of health data, the Department of Health and Human Services regulates HIPAA. This strict protocol is a guideline that relaxes privacy rules and enforces anonymization of 18 important parameters, including:
| Personal information | Biometric information | Support Information |
|---|---|---|
| Name, contact information, date of birth, admission and discharge dates, email address, phone number, social security number | Fingerprints, voice prints, full face images, unique identification numbers, comparable images, etc. | Health record number, health insurance beneficiary number, license number, account number, vehicle number, website URL, device identifier, and serial number |
A brief overview of data anonymization techniques
There are a variety of technologies and approaches to ensuring HIPPA and GDPR compliance through data anonymization. Let’s look at some of the most commonly implemented ones.
Data anonymization
This is a complete obfuscation technique that completely removes or alters personal identifiers so that patient data cannot be re-identified. This is an irreversible process.
Data Masking or Data Editing
This technique involves masking or hiding only specific medical data fields that contain sensitive information.
Data generalization
This process involves generalizing certain inputs or parameters. For example, an individual’s date of birth (information that could lead to data re-identification) is converted to a vague range. This provides the appropriate amount of information to stakeholders without providing patient details.
Data anonymization
This is the philosophical opposite of data anonymization, which replaces personal identifiers with specific codes or pseudonyms, allowing data to be re-identified whenever necessary. That is, access to codes and pseudonyms is limited to authorized stakeholders, so confidentiality is still maintained.
How do I remain compliant with health data obligations?
However, these dramatic implementations and use cases of AI come with their own challenges, primarily in the form of AI training data requirements. And the nature of healthcare data and the sensitivity surrounding it makes it difficult to obtain quality healthcare training data. This is why data anonymization is becoming increasingly important as it is essential to aid AI innovation and breakthroughs.
So whether your focus is internal R&D or standardized practices to ensure HIPPA and GDPR compliance, there are a number of initiatives you can implement. Let’s take a look at them.
Best Practices for Healthcare Compliance
- Build data protection practices into your culture at the policy level with data encryption technologies. According to reports, more than 61% of data breaches are caused by human negligence. So invest enough time and resources in establishing protocols to ensure access control and educating your employees on data protection.
- Implement standardized guidelines across organizational hierarchies to store, access, use, and retrieve data.
- Please review HIPPA guidelines closely to ensure consistent compliance.
- Random audits of your data can help you uncover potential operational vulnerabilities and ultimately optimize your processes.
- Assign a compliance officer if necessary.
- Develop an action plan for handling a devastating data breach and conduct frequent drills to familiarize yourself with it.
- Work with a trusted AI training data provider like Shaip to ensure error-free annotation and anonymization practices.
Anonymization of medical data is not a one-time thing, but an ongoing practice. It is sensitive and requires a meticulous approach with attention to detail. I hope this article has helped you understand the importance of anonymization and its implications.
To skip the tricky aspects and achieve optimal compliance with healthcare regulations, contact us about your data anonymization requirements. Our experts and veterans in the field will ensure contextual implementation of the protocol that fits your business vision.