What's new in informatics

This issue of JAMIA reports on a collection of informatics research and applications developed and implemented worldwide. I highlight below some of the latest findings in our field and discuss how they are interconnected.The increasing adoption of electronic health records (EHR) and secondary use of clinical data for research have fueled research in privacy technology. In this issue, Malin ( page 3 ) uses simple techniques to show that the same level of privacy preservation attained with the ‘safe harbor’ rule from the US government can be achieved, even if select portions of the data that are not supposed to be disclosed under the safe harbor rule (eg, the ages of individuals above 89 years old) are made available. The article is important because it illustrates the rationale behind the safe harbor rule but proposes technological alternatives that may influence how new policies and regulations are formulated. More research in this burgeoning field is sorely needed to enable effective use of clinical data for research without compromising individual privacy.A secondary finding, related to privacy, in a study from Atkinson ( page 24 ) shows that patients are reluctant to enter their personal information in a web application that helps locate appropriate …