Automated Real-time De-identification of Sensitive Medical Data: Enhancing Privacy and Research Potential

What is de-identification and why is it important?

De-identification is the process of removing or obscuring personal information from health data, making it difficult or impossible to link the data to specific individuals. This process is crucial for healthcare organisations to:

Protect patient privacy
Comply with data protection regulations like HIPAA
Enable safe use of data for research and analytics

De-identification allows healthcare providers to unlock valuable insights from patient data while maintaining strict privacy standards.

Real-time de-identification from any source

Yoctobe’s Health Interoperability Engine offers real-time de-identification capabilities for a wide range of data sources, including:

Databases (SQL, NoSQL)
Documents (PDF, Word, Excel, plain text)
APIs (FHIR, HL7, custom)
Medical imaging systems (DICOM)

The engine continuously monitors changes in your organisation’s data sources, performing instantaneous de-identification as new information is added or updated.

How the interoperability engine works

Listens for changes: The engine connects to your data sources and detects any modifications in real-time.
Processes data: As soon as new or updated information is detected, it’s immediately sent for de-identification.
De-identifies content: Advanced machine learning algorithms identify and remove or replace sensitive information.
Saves results: The de-identified data is then securely stored in your chosen target system (database, document repository, etc.).

State-of-the-art machine learning for high precision

Yoctobe’s de-identification solution uses cutting-edge machine learning techniques trained on billions of medical records to ensure:

High accuracy in identifying personal health information (PHI)
Low false-positive rates to maintain data utility
Contextual understanding to differentiate between similar terms in different contexts

Complete transparency and auditability

To ensure trust and compliance, Yoctobe’s de-identification process offers:

Detailed logging of all de-identification actions
Audit trails for regulatory compliance
Customisable reports on de-identification performance and statistics

Integration with existing systems

Yoctobe’s Health Interoperability Engine seamlessly integrates with a wide range of existing healthcare systems and software. For example:

Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems: The engine can connect directly to popular EHR platforms like Epic, Cerner, or Allscripts, automatically de-identifying patient records as they’re created or updated.
Research databases: When integrated with clinical trial management systems or biobanks, the engine ensures that all data exported for analysis is properly de-identified in real-time.
Healthcare analytics platforms: For organisations using tools like Tableau or Power BI for healthcare analytics, Yoctobe’s engine can be configured to provide a continuous stream of de-identified data, enabling real-time insights without compromising patient privacy.

Pricing for Secure Research Environments

Yoctobe offers unlimited usage of its de-identification service for all Secure Research Environments, subject to terms and conditions. This pricing model enables research institutions to leverage large volumes of de-identified data without worrying about per-use costs.

By implementing Yoctobe’s automated real-time de-identification solution, healthcare organisations can confidently share and analyse sensitive medical data, driving innovation in research while maintaining the highest standards of patient privacy.