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Private data analysis-the useful analysis of confidential data-requires a rigorous and practicable definition of privacy. Differential privacy, an emerging standard, is the subject of intensive investigation in several diverse research communities. We review the definition, explain its motivation, and discuss some of the challenges to bringing this concept to practice.

To test the feasibility of using text mining to depict meaningfully the experience of pain in patients with metastatic prostate cancer, to identify novel pain phenotypes, and to propose methods for longitudinal visualization of pain status.

DNA samples are often processed and sequenced in facilities external to the point of collection. These samples are routinely labeled with patient identifiers or pseudonyms, allowing for potential linkage to identity and private clinical information if intercepted during transmission. We present a cryptographic scheme to securely transmit externally generated sequence data which does not require any patient identifiers, public key infrastructure, or the transmission of passwords.

In 2011, the US Supreme Court decided Sorrell v. IMS Health, Inc., a case that addressed the mining of large aggregated databases and the sale of prescriber data for marketing prescription drugs. The court struck down a Vermont law that required data mining companies to obtain permission from individual providers before selling prescription records that included identifiable physician prescription information to pharmaceutical companies for drug marketing. The decision was based [...]

Point-of-care information needs are common and frequently unmet. One solution to this problem is the use of Infobuttons, which are context-sensitive links from electronic health records (EHR) to knowledge resources, sometimes involving an intermediate broker known as an Infobutton Manager. Health Level Seven (HL7) has developed the Context-Aware Knowledge Retrieval (Infobutton) standard to standardize the integration between EHR systems and knowledge resources. While the standard specifies a set of context [...]

Ascertainment of potential subjects has been a longstanding problem in clinical research. Various methods have been proposed, including using data in electronic health records. However, these methods typically suffer from scaling effects-some methods work well for large cohorts; others work for small cohorts only.

To observe the effect of electronic medical record (EMR) system sophistication on preventive women's healthcare.

To determine if the PubMed and Ovid MEDLINE clinical queries (which were developed in the publishing year 2000, for the purpose categories therapy, diagnosis, prognosis, etiology, and clinical prediction guides) perform as well when searching in current publishing years.

Much of what is currently documented in the electronic health record is in response toincreasingly complex and prescriptive medicolegal, reimbursement, and regulatory requirements. These requirements often result in redundant data capture and cumbersome documentation processes. AMIA's 2011 Health Policy Meeting examined key issues in this arena and envisioned changes to help move toward an ideal future state of clinical data capture and documentation. The consensus of the meeting was that [...]

Data from electronic healthcare records (EHR) can be used to monitor drug safety, but in order to compare and pool data from different EHR databases, the extraction of potential adverse events must be harmonized. In this paper, we describe the procedure used for harmonizing the extraction from eight European EHR databases of five events of interest deemed to be important in pharmacovigilance: acute myocardial infarction (AMI); acute renal failure (ARF) [...]