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Title: Individual privacy versus public good: protecting confidentiality in health research

Citation Type: Journal Article

Publication Year: 2015

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Abstract: Health and medical data are increasingly being generated, collected, and stored in electronic form in healthcare facilities and administrative agencies. Such data hold a wealth of information vital to effective health policy development and evaluation, as well as to enhanced clinical care through evidence‐based practice and safety and quality monitoring. These initiatives are aimed at improving individuals' health and well‐being. Nevertheless, analyses of health data archives must be conducted in such a way that individuals' privacy is not compromised. One important aspect of protecting individuals' privacy is protecting the confidentiality of their data. It is the purpose of this paper to provide a review of a number of approaches to reducing disclosure risk when making data available for research, and to present a taxonomy for such approaches. Some of these methods are widely used, whereas others are still in development. It is important to have a range of methods available because there is also a range of data‐use scenarios, and it is important to be able to choose between methods suited to differing scenarios. In practice, it is necessary to find a balance between allowing the use of health and medical data for research and protecting confidentiality. This balance is often presented as a trade‐off between disclosure risk and data utility, because methods that reduce disclosure risk, in general, also reduce data utility.

Url: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/sim.6543

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Authors: O'Keefe, Christine, M; Rubin, Donald, B

Periodical (Full): Statistics in Medicine

Issue: 23

Volume: 34

Pages: 3081-3103

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Health

Countries: United States