Protecting patient privacy requires various technical tools. It involves regulations for sharing, de-identifying, securely storing, transmitting and handling protected health information (PHI). It involves privacy laws and legal agreements. It requires establishing rules for monitoring privacy leaks, determining actions when they occur, and handling de-identified clinical narrative reports. Deidentification is one such indispensable instrument in this set of privacy tools.

---

Keywords : Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, medical informatics, confidentiality, data anonymization data sharing, personally identifiable information, privacy