CASE SPECIFIC 59

MEDICAL RECORDS — COUNTERPLAN WILL PROTECT MEDICAL RESEARCH BENEFITS

ABILITY TO USE AND LINK DATA IS VITAL TO MEDICAL RESEARCH AND QUALITY CONTROL

The ability to link bodies of data is vital for continued health research for numerous purposes, including use of longitudinal and other historical data and linking of health and other data as well as quality and cost control.

CODIFICATION CENTERS COULD PROTECT DATA AND PROMOTE RESEARCH

To serve this end, the codification centers would house highly secure computers containing, in an encrypted form, the information that relates codes to names and to other personal identifiers (as more than one such item is needed to identify a person). The bodies of data themselves will not be kept in these centers but remain under the control of those who currently hold them. When the research work of two or more agencies, research centers, or other legitimate parties calls for linking their data, their databases would be transmitted to the codification centers, which will be equipped with the specialists and equipment to provide the needed linking and subsequent anonymization. (One such procedure calls for one-way encryption hashes that would allow converting personal identifiers into coded numbers but not the reverse.)