[Nottingham] NHS care.data ('Anonymized' data really isn't - and here's why not)

[Martin]

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A few weeks later and a selection of "care.data" related headlines are:


http://www.informationweek.com/healthcare/electronic-health-records/feds-praise-open-data-health-cloud-launch/d/d-id/1112224

Feds Praise Open Data Health Cloud Launch

Taking advantage of more-open data standards in other countries,
MedRed BT Health Cloud will provide public access to aggregated
population health data.


http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/feb/24/hospital-records-nhs-patients-insurance

Hospital records of 47m NHS patients obtained by insurance society

Report says data covering in-patient stays between 1997 and 2010 were
used to track patients' medical histories


http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/mar/03/nhs-england-patient-data-google-servers

NHS England patient data 'uploaded to Google servers', Tory MP says

A prominent Tory MP on the powerful health select committee has
questioned how the entire NHS hospital patient database for England
was handed over to management consultants who uploaded it to Google
servers based outside the UK.


http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-02/26/demand-transparency-from-nhs

NHS data blunders mean you can't trust Care.data

The Institute has also told us that the data is "totally anonymous",
but we know that jigsaw attacks can reidentify patients. The dataset
included a unique patient identifier, age, gender, the date they
started [treatment], date finished, admission method, dates of
operations, postal district and diagnosis.


http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/03/care-data-leaks

NHS patient data made publicly available online

Updated 20:40 03/03/2014: Earthware UK has issued a statement saying
the data it used was mock HES data, not real patient data.


http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/mar/17/online-tool-identify-public-figures-medical-care

Online tool could be used to identify public figures' medical care,
say critics

OmegaSolver's Patient Analyser tool has been taken offline after
concerns over use of 'patient-level' data


http://www.cio.com.au/article/540579/don_t_upload_health_care_data_google_cloud_uk_groups_say/?utm_medium=rss&utm_source=authorfeed

Don't upload health care data to Google cloud, UK groups say

Such sensitive data should never be uploaded to a provider outside the
jurisdiction of the UK, the groups said


http://theconversation.com/foi-reveals-cynical-logic-that-compromises-nhs-data-privacy-24750

FoI reveals cynical logic that compromises NHS data privacy

... HSCIC believes that sharing of care.data will be exempt from the
Data Protection Act as long as pseudonymisation is applied. An FoI
response just received by Dr Neil Bhatia confirms this even more
explicitly. This conclusion cannot be derived from the Information
Commissioner Office’s guidelines on anonymisation, which take a more
sophisticated line.

Kelsey and his NHS spin doctors cannot afford to lose this argument on
behalf of the HSCIC. If pseudonymised care.data information is truly
anonymous, no-one who holds or receives such data incurs any
obligation towards the data subjects. They will therefore be free to
process the data in any way they like...


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16026827

Everyone 'to be research patient', says David Cameron

Every NHS patient should be a "research patient" with their medical
details "opened up" to private healthcare firms, says David Cameron.




My personal opinion is that your medical records should remain your
personal data... There is huge scope for abuse otherwise...

Martin



NHS data acronyms:

HES: Hospital Episode Statistics
http://www.datadictionary.nhs.uk/data_dictionary/nhs_business_definitions/h/hospital_episode_statistics_de.asp?shownav=1

As collected by SUS: The Secondary Uses Service

SCR: Summary Care Record
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summary_Care_Record

And newly, there is to be introduced "Care.Data" for 3rd party use.


Those are summarised by the umbrella description:

NHS Connecting for Health
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHS_Connecting_for_Health



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