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Published in: Trials 1/2020

Open Access 01-12-2020 | Research

Evaluating the re-identification risk of a clinical study report anonymized under EMA Policy 0070 and Health Canada Regulations

Authors: Janice Branson, Nathan Good, Jung-Wei Chen, Will Monge, Christian Probst, Khaled El Emam

Published in: Trials | Issue 1/2020

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Abstract

Background

Regulatory agencies, such as the European Medicines Agency and Health Canada, are requiring the public sharing of clinical trial reports that are used to make drug approval decisions. Both agencies have provided guidance for the quantitative anonymization of these clinical reports before they are shared. There is limited empirical information on the effectiveness of this approach in protecting patient privacy for clinical trial data.

Methods

In this paper we empirically test the hypothesis that when these guidelines are implemented in practice, they provide adequate privacy protection to patients. An anonymized clinical study report for a trial on a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug that is sold as a prescription eye drop was subjected to re-identification. The target was 500 patients in the USA. Only suspected matches to real identities were reported.

Results

Six suspected matches with low confidence scores were identified. Each suspected match took 24.2 h of effort. Social media and death records provided the most useful information for getting the suspected matches.

Conclusions

These results suggest that the anonymization guidance from these agencies can provide adequate privacy protection for patients, and the modes of attack can inform further refinements of the methodologies they recommend in their guidance for manufacturers.
Appendix
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Footnotes
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Metadata
Title
Evaluating the re-identification risk of a clinical study report anonymized under EMA Policy 0070 and Health Canada Regulations
Authors
Janice Branson
Nathan Good
Jung-Wei Chen
Will Monge
Christian Probst
Khaled El Emam
Publication date
01-12-2020
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
Trials / Issue 1/2020
Electronic ISSN: 1745-6215
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-020-4120-y

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