Often an organization needs to share person-level data keeping as much detail
in the data as possible while still making sure the information is sufficiently
de-identified. This can be a difficult task. On the one hand, the dataset
has to remain useful. On the other hand, people whose information is contained
in the dataset should not be re-identifiable. One of the best possible ways to
maintain both usefulness and privacy protection in shared data is to use a
Privacert Appliance.
The Privacert Appliance is a "certification box" that can reside at your
location. It provides a "privacy wall" where identifiable records
are provided as input to the Privacert Appliance, and the resulting records
from the Privacert Appliance
are sufficiently de-identified and certified as being in compliance
with the HIPAA Privacy Rule. The resulting data can then be shared freely.
There are no knobs, settings or controls (other than the power switch)
to operate at your location. You just plug it in and pipe your dataset
through it. The Privacert Appliance is pre-wired to operate on your
dataset, based on the known vulnerabilities found in
a HIPAA Risk Assessment
on your dataset.
Without a Privacert Appliance, your organization may be forced to make crude
decisions on which data elements to share or on what version of values can be shared.
Such decisions may render the data useless because decisions are strictly limited
to database operations available to your organizations, such as removing digits
from all ZIP codes or providing age ranges rather than full dates.
In contrast, a Privacert Appliance makes minimal, fine-grain edits only to
records known to generate a privacy risk. Doing so provides resulting information
that is far less distorted than traditional methods, and therefore more details
remain in the data. A Privacert Appliance maintains the usefulness of the data
while aslo making sure each record is sufficiently de-identified
in accordance to the HIPAA Privacy Rule.
If you are interested in a Privacert Appliance,
contact a Privacert representatives at info@privacert.com,
who will walk you through the process.
The first step will be a
Risk Assessment.
For more information, see
Privacert Appliance Specification Sheet (Printable PDF)
See also:
The Privacert home page