Evaluation of PHI Hunter in Natural Language Processing Research.

Journal: Perspectives in health information management
PMID: 26807078

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: We introduce and evaluate a new, easily accessible tool using a common statistical analysis and business analytics software suite, SAS, which can be programmed to remove specific protected health information (PHI) from a text document. Removal of PHI is important because the quantity of text documents used for research with natural language processing (NLP) is increasing. When using existing data for research, an investigator must remove all PHI not needed for the research to comply with human subjects' right to privacy. This process is similar, but not identical, to de-identification of a given set of documents.

Authors

  • Andrew Redd
    Andrew Redd, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at the University of Utah and a statistician in the IDEAS Center at the VA Salt Lake City Health Care System in Salt Lake City, UT.
  • Steve Pickard
    Steve Pickard, MBA, is a data analyst in the IDEAS Center at the VA Salt Lake City Health Care System in Salt Lake City, UT.
  • Stephane Meystre
    Stephane Meystre, MD, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at the University of Utah and a Research Investigator in the IDEAS Center at the VA Salt Lake City Health Care System in Salt Lake City, UT.
  • Jeffrey Scehnet
    Jeffrey Scehnet, PhD, is a VINCI Staff member at the VA Salt Lake City Health Care System in Salt Lake City, UT.
  • Dan Bolton
    Dan Bolton, MS, is a statistician in the IDEAS Center at the VA Salt Lake City Health Care System in Salt Lake City, UT.
  • Julia Heavirland
    Julia Heavirland, MA, is a research coordinator in the IDEAS Center at the VA Salt Lake City Health Care System in Salt Lake City, UT.
  • Allison Lynn Weaver
    Allison Lynn Weaver, MPH, LADC, is an analyst at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Baltimore, MD.
  • Carol Hope
    Carol Hope, PharmD, MS, is a postdoctoral fellow in the IDEAS Center at the VA Salt Lake City Health Care System in Salt Lake City, UT.
  • Jennifer Hornung Garvin
    Jennifer Hornung Garvin, PhD, MBA, RHIA, CTR, CPHQ, CCS, FAHIMA, is an Associate Professor at the University of Utah and a core research investigator in the IDEAS Center at the VA Salt Lake City Health Care System in Salt Lake City, UT.

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