Researchers Submit Patent Application, “System for Anonymizing and Aggregating Protected Information”, for Approval (USPTO 20180075255)

Managed Care Weekly Digest

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Managed Care Weekly Digest -- From Washington, D.C., NewsRx journalists report that a patent application by the inventors Lynch, Cecil O'Dell (Granite Bay, CA); Carroll, Dennis James (Leander, TX); Truscott, Andrew John (Spring, TX); Acuna, German (Austin, TX), filed on November 3, 2017, was made available online on March 22, 2018 (see also Accenture Global Services Limited).

The patent's assignee is Accenture Global Services Limited.

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: "This disclosure relates to aggregating records, and in particular, to aggregating and organizing records that include protected/confidential information in a manner that protects the identity of the individual associated with the record.

"Confidential records are increasingly becoming digitized and stored in computer databases. Data privacy and security issues are thus paramount, as well as compliance with applicable laws and regulations. For example, in the United States, the HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability And Accountability Act) requires that patient medical records be kept confidential, and not released to third parties without authorization. Yet, it is advantageous for different entities to have access to certain medical records for purposes of research, clinical studies, and diagnosis. However, many regulations, including HIPAA, do not permit unrelated or independent entities to aggregate medical records as such aggregation could permit the entity to identify persons associated with the medical records, resulting in a privacy breach.

"Further, even when confidential records are properly obtained, such records may be incomplete, erroneous, and/or ambiguous. For example, a health insurance company may receive claims from two different medical offices where the patient's name is spelled differently. Thus, aggregating and associating confidential records corresponding to a particular patient is difficult, irrespective of the privacy and compliance issues.

"Accordingly, a need exists to allow analysis of information in confidential records in a protected (i.e., anonymous) fashion by aggregating and identifying the records as belonging to a common individual without revealing the identity of the individual. In the context of medical records, this is useful in research, clinical studies, or when identifying medical conditions, particularly when such patient medical records are obtained from unrelated databases or source systems."

As a supplement to the background information on this patent application, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors' summary information for this patent application: "In one aspect, a system for anonymizing and aggregating protected information (PI) from a plurality of data sources is provided. The system includes a master index server coupled to a data repository. The master index server is configured to receive an anonymized record associated with an individual from a plurality of data hashing appliances. The system includes a cluster matching engine operatively coupled to the master index server and the data repository configured to apply a plurality of rules to hashed data elements of the received anonymized record for comparing hashed data elements of the received anonymized patient medical record with hashed data elements of clusters of anonymized records stored in the data repository, each record in a given cluster of anonymized records having been previously determined to be associated with a same individual and being associated with a unique cluster identifier, to determine whether an individual associated with the received anonymized record corresponds to one of the individuals associated with a cluster of anonymized records. When the received anonymized record is determined to correspond to an individual associated with a cluster of anonymized records, the cluster matching engine is configured to add the received anonymized record to the cluster of anonymized records associated with that individual.

"In a second aspect, a method for anonymizing and aggregating protected information (PI) from multiple data sources is provided. The method includes receiving, by a master index server coupled to a data repository, an anonymized record associated with an individual from a plurality of data hashing appliances. The method further includes applying, by a cluster matching engine operatively coupled to the master index server and the data repository, a plurality of rules to hashed data elements of the received anonymized record for comparing hashed data elements of the received anonymized record with hashed data elements of a plurality of clusters of anonymized records associated with an individual stored in the data repository, each record in a given cluster of anonymized records having been previously determined to be associated with a same individual and being associated with a unique cluster identifier, to determine whether the individual associated with the received anonymized record corresponds to one of the individuals associated with a cluster of anonymized records. When the received anonymized record is determined to correspond to the an individual associated with one of the clusters of anonymized records, the method includes adding the received anonymized record to the cluster of anonymized records associated with that individual.

"In a third aspect, a non-transistory computer readable medium is provided for storing instruction code for anonymizing and aggregating protected information (PI) from multiple data sources. The instruction code is executable by a machine for causing the machine to receive an anonymized record associated with an individual from a plurality of data hashing appliances. The instruction code also causes the machine to apply a plurality of rules to hashed data elements of the received anonymized record for comparing hashed data elements of the received anonymized record with hashed data elements of a plurality of clusters of anonymized records stored in a data repository, each record in a given cluster of anonymized records having been previously determined to be associated with a same individual and being associated with a unique cluster identifier, to determine whether the individual associated with the received anonymized record corresponds to one of the individuals associated with a cluster of anonymized records. When the received anonymized record is determined to correspond to an individual associated with a cluster of anonymized records, the instruction code causes the machine to add the received anonymized record to the cluster of anonymized patient medical records associated with that individual.

"Using the system for anonymizing and aggregating protected information, research can be done retrospectively across a broad population with more complete information on each individual while still maintaining confidentiality of the individual and complying with various regulations, such as HIPAA.

"Other embodiments of the systems, methods, features, and their corresponding advantages will be, or will become, apparent to one with skill in the art upon examination of the following figures and detailed description. It is intended that all such additional systems, methods, features, and advantages be included within this description, be within the scope of the invention, and be protected by the following claims."

For additional information on this patent application, see: Lynch, Cecil O'Dell; Carroll, Dennis James; Truscott, Andrew John; Acuna, German. System for Anonymizing and Aggregating Protected Information. Filed November 3, 2017 and posted March 22, 2018. Patent URL: http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220180075255%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20180075255&RS=DN/20180075255

Keywords for this news article include: Business, Data Elements, Medical Records, Health Insurance, Records as Topic, Clinical Research, Health and Medicine, Information Technology, Clinical Trials and Studies, Information and Data Aggregation, Accenture Global Services Limited.