Data for Decisions - The security measures protecting your deidentified data
Are you aware of the rigorous security measures in place to protect deidentified patient data shared with the Department of General Practice and Primary Care? Read on to discover more and access a security update.
Here at the Data for Decisions program, we are truly grateful for your participation in the program and your ongoing contribution to primary care research. Your deidentified data is vital to progressing medical understanding, advancements and sometimes even breakthroughs! We know you trust us to take great care of your data but do you actually know how your deidentified data is being protected? Read on to find out how.
The Data for Decisions website is home to a wealth of important information about Security and Privacy, including how we prioritise the security of the data and the significance of maintaining robust cyber security measures. In light of the escalating global cyber-attacks, we are dedicated to safeguarding the confidentiality and integrity of this information.
To ensure your deidentified data remains secure at all times, we use a sophisticated software program called GRHANITE, which collects the data for the purposes of audit, clinical research and health surveillance. GRHANITE is specifically designed to work in any environment where data is being routinely collected and addresses the many complex legal, ethical, organisational and technical barriers that can prevent or hinder data collection in Australia. Detailed information about exactly how GRHANITE works can be found here and on the Health and Biomedical Research Information Technology Unit website.
Once the data is collected it is then collated in the Patron data repository, which is physically housed within a secure data centre at The University of Melbourne. All data remains onsite at all times. No data within the Patron dataset is ever stored in an off-shore server or outside of University controlled server environments.
If you have any questions or comments relating to security, you can contact Patron Administration patron-support@unimelb.edu.au
Patron project update
The Patron data repository was recently used to evaluate automated deidentification of patient progress notes to test their suitability for real-world use. The researchers evaluated the performance of four deidentification tools and assessed their suitability for customisation to Australian general practice. Read about their findings here.
Here is the recent publication from this project:
C. El-Hayek, S. Barzegar, N. Faux, K. Doyle, P. Pillai, S.J. Mutch, A. Vaisey, R. Ward, L. Sanci, A.G. Dunn, M.E.Hellard, J.S. Hocking, K. Verspoor, & D.I.R. Boyle. (2023). An evaluation of existing text de-identification tools for use with patient progress notes from Australian general practice. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 173, 105021. ISSN 1386-5056. doi: 10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2023.105021.
Patron Application Dates:
If you are considering submitting a Patron application, please review the information on the D4D website for Researchers found here, and contact the Patron Administrator (patron-support@unimelb.edu.au ) if you have any questions.
2024 applications to access Patron data must be received by:
- Friday 28 June 2024 for review by the independent Data Governance Committee in July 2024
- Friday 23 August 2024 for review by the independent Data Governance Committee in September 2024
- Friday 25 October 2024 for review by the independent Data Governance Committee in November 2024