Open AccessA simple heuristic for blindfolded record linkage
Author(s) -
Susan C. Weber,
Henry J. Lowe,
Amar K. Das,
Todd Ferris
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of the american medical informatics association
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.614
H-Index - 150
eISSN - 1527-974X
pISSN - 1067-5027
DOI - 10.1136/amiajnl-2011-000329
Subject(s) - identifier , computer science , heuristic , unique identifier , matching (statistics) , record linkage , sensitivity (control systems) , set (abstract data type) , string (physics) , linkage (software) , character (mathematics) , variable (mathematics) , prefix , information sensitivity , data mining , information retrieval , artificial intelligence , computer security , medicine , statistics , mathematics , population , philosophy , electronic engineering , mathematical analysis , linguistics , chemistry , environmental health , engineering , mathematical physics , biochemistry , geometry , programming language , gene
To address the challenge of balancing privacy with the need to create cross-site research registry records on individual patients, while matching the data for a given patient as he or she moves between participating sites. To evaluate the strategy of generating anonymous identifiers based on real identifiers in such a way that the chances of a shared patient being accurately identified were maximized, and the chances of incorrectly joining two records belonging to different people were minimized.