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Image Data Sharing for Biomedical Research—Meeting HIPAA Requirements for De-identification

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Abstract

Data sharing is increasingly recognized as critical to cross-disciplinary research and to assuring scientific validity. Despite National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation policies encouraging data sharing by grantees, little data sharing of clinical data has in fact occurred. A principal reason often given is the potential of inadvertent violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act privacy regulations. While regulations specify the components of private health information that should be protected, there are no commonly accepted methods to de-identify clinical data objects such as images. This leads institutions to take conservative risk-averse positions on data sharing. In imaging trials, where images are coded according to the Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) standard, the complexity of the data objects and the flexibility of the DICOM standard have made it especially difficult to meet privacy protection objectives. The recent release of DICOM Supplement 142 on image de-identification has removed much of this impediment. This article describes the development of an open-source software suite that implements DICOM Supplement 142 as part of the National Biomedical Imaging Archive (NBIA). It also describes the lessons learned by the authors as NBIA has acquired more than 20 image collections encompassing over 30 million images.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge the support of the Radiological Society of North America in developing and promoting the deployment of CTP. We would also like to recognize the extensive contributions of members of DICOM Working Group 18 in the development of Supplement 142.

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Correspondence to John B. Freymann.

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This project has been funded in whole or in part with federal funds from the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, under Contract No. HHSN261200800001E. The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Department of Health and Human Services, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

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Freymann, J.B., Kirby, J.S., Perry, J.H. et al. Image Data Sharing for Biomedical Research—Meeting HIPAA Requirements for De-identification. J Digit Imaging 25, 14–24 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10278-011-9422-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10278-011-9422-x

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