MaskwiseGuides · Healthcare
Healthcare and AI: medical reports, health data and confidentiality
Summarizing a long medical history, translating a report for a patient or drafting a referral letter: AI can help a lot. But health data is among the most protected data there is, and medical confidentiality predates any data protection law.
This article is general information, not legal advice for a specific case.
Why extra care is needed
- GDPR: data concerning health is a special category (Article 9), with stricter conditions for processing.
- HIPAA (United States): protected health information may only be used and disclosed as the Privacy Rule allows. The Safe Harbor method of de-identification (45 CFR 164.514(b)) requires removing 18 kinds of identifiers, from names and dates to record numbers.
- Professional secrecy: medical confidentiality is a professional and often criminal-law duty in most countries.
Before using AI
- Remove everything that identifies the patient: name, ID and record numbers, insurance number, address, phone, dates of birth and admission.
- Beware of rare details: an uncommon condition, a specific job or a small town can identify someone without a name. Generalize.
- Remove professionals’ and facility names if they aren’t needed.
- Review the result, especially scanned or handwritten documents.
- Follow your organization’s AI policy.
Where Maskwise helps
Maskwise detects names, ID and reference numbers, phone numbers, addresses and dates, in scanned reports too, and flags handwritten or unreadable lines it could not read so you can check them. Everything stays on your Mac: reports never go through a server.
Summary
- Health data is specially protected and covered by professional secrecy.
- Remove the patient’s identity, including indirect identifiers, before using AI.
- Take extra care with scanned and handwritten documents.
Hide personal data before using AI, without it leaving your Mac.
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