There's a seminar here next Tuesday that might be of interest to some
list members. It's by a postdoc of ours who's been helping IMS sort
out a data collection system:
University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory
SECURITY SEMINAR SERIES
SPEAKER: Dr Vaclav Matyas, Jr., Computer Laboratory
DATE: Tuesday 16th June at 4.15pm
PLACE: Room TP4, Computer Laboratory
TITLE: MEDICAL PRIVACY PROTECTION - THE XTREND PROJECT
The Xtrend project involves collecting drug prescription (and
collection) data from pharmacies and creating a database that supports
evaluation of general practitioners' (GPs') prescription trends by
district. The data is collected without patient identity information,
but GPs' identity has to be protected carefully by subsequent
processing - only some GPs have consented to their identity being
known to data users (usually drug wholesalers or manufacturers) and
the identity of the others has to be concealed.
The talk will analyse the problems in protecting the identity of the
non-consenting GPs. The solution involves measures like setting a
minimal number of participating GPs, practices and pharmacies in a
district, and concealing the telltale signs of GPs moving between
practices or going on holiday. Another interesting issue concerns the
fact that the system is currently being built and this provides a
certain level of `noise' against malicious data analysis. However, the
situation once the system stabilises will almost certainly be
different.
* * *
Maps and travelling directions are at:
<http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/site-maps/site-maps.html>
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