Apologies for the cross posting.
Linking health care records for statistical analysis: care.data, possibilities and problems.  7th October 2014, 17.00 - 19.00. 
Chaired by Professor Harvey Goldstein.
Speakers: Garry Coleman (The Health and Social Care Information Centre), Professor Alison Macfarlane (City University), Dr. Jenny Lewis (Dr. Foster), Dr. Katie Harron (University College London)
The recent debate about the role of The Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) in producing and making available linked GP and hospital records (care.data) has raised a number of political and ethical issues. The meeting will start with a brief history of the controversy, setting the background for a discussion of the statistical issues involved. These will include the balance between anonymisation and data degradation, how a possible 'safe laboratory' for researchers might work, how linkage errors can be dealt with and whether pseudonomysing data at source, to improve data security, is compatible with efficient linkage. Issues concerning trust in Government handling of data confidentiality will form an important background to the various contributions, but these are not the prime focus of the meeting.
http://www.statslife.org.uk/events/eventdetail/264/14/-

Recent advances in Multilevel Modelling 16th October, 14:00-17:00.
Details to follow soon

Cathie Marsh Lecture 2014: Anonymisation: are the data we release safe 13th November 2014, 17:00-20:00.
Speakers: Mark Elliot (University of Manchester), Ross Anderson (University of Cambridge)
Discussant: Kieron O’Hara (University of Southampton)
The talk will take the form of a debate, with Mark Elliot talking about the advantages and security of data release and related anonymisation procedures, while Ross Anderson will take an opposing view. The following discussion will be led by Kieron O’Hara. We hope the lecture generates some debate around the risks, benefits and losses from anonymisation and statistical disclosure procedures, in relation to survey and administrative data, as well as some discussion on how the public might react to greater release of administrative data. The meeting will be followed by a drinks reception sponsored by the Cathie Marsh Institute for Social Research (CMIst).
http://www.statslife.org.uk/events/eventdetail/251/94/-

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