Privacy rule lists these 18 research identifiers
Take these off charts, and the coast is clear
The final rule of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) says that medical research must protect confidentiality of research subjects by de-identifying protected health information. The rule lists these 18 identifiers often listed in medical charts that should be removed for the purposes of research:
A. Names.
B. All geographic subdivisions smaller than a state, including street address, city, county, precinct, ZIP code, and their equivalent geocodes, except for the initial three digits of a ZIP code, if according to the current publicly available data from the Bureau of Census:
1. The geographic unit formed by combining all zip codes with the same three initial digits contains more than 20,000 people.
2. The initial three digits of a ZIP code for all such geographic units containing 20,000 or fewer people is changed to 000.
C. All elements of dates (except year) for dates directly related to an individual, including birth date, admission date, discharge date, date of death; and all ages over 89 and all elements of dates (including year) indicative of such age, except that such ages and elements may be aggregated into a single category of 90 or older;
D. Telephone numbers.
E. Fax numbers.
F. Electronic mail addresses.
G. Social Security numbers.
H. Medical record numbers.
I. Health plan beneficiary numbers.
J. Account numbers.
K. Certificate/license numbers.
L. Vehicle identifiers and serial numbers.
M. Device identifiers and serial numbers.
N. Web Universal Resource Locators.
O. Internet Protocol address numbers.
P. Biometric identifiers, including finger and voice prints.
Q. Full face photographic images and any comparable images.
R. Any other unique identifying number, characteristic, or code.
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