Search AMIA.org

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 determine how well statistical text mining (STM) models can identify falls within clinical text associated with an ambulatory encounter.

To assess patients' desire for granular level privacy control over which personal health information should be shared, with whom, and for what purpose; and whether these preferences vary based on sensitivity of health information.

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.

To model the financial effects of implementing a hospital-wide electronic medical record (EMR) system in a tertiary facility in Malawi.

Ensuring the security and appropriate use of patient health information contained within electronic medical records systems is challenging. Observing these difficulties, we present an addition to the explanation-based auditing system (EBAS) that attempts to determine the clinical or operational reason why accesses occur to medical records based on patient diagnosis information. Accesses that can be explained with a reason are filtered so that the compliance officer has fewer suspicious accesses [...]

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.