Case Study: Ontario Institute for Cancer Research achieves de-identified data access for cancer research with Privacy Analytics

Ontario Cancer Data Linkage Program

Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, through its cd-link program with Cancer Care Ontario and ICES, needed a way to make cancer data directly available to researchers while protecting patient privacy and complying with Ontario PHIPA and U.S. HIPAA requirements. They turned to Privacy Analytics and its enterprise software to determine re-identification risk and support safe data release.

Privacy Analytics implemented a risk-based de-identification process that masks personal information, automates data release, and preserves analytic utility. The result was de-identified patient-level data that can be accessed by researchers, helped establish new satellite research sites, and is expected to drive a 50% increase in the number of cancer health services researchers working with linked population datasets over five years.

Ontario Institute for Cancer Research

Craig Earle

Director