NLM Scrubber: NLM s Software Application to De-identify Clinical Text Documents

This study is about the quality assessment, improvement, and monitoring of an automatic clinical text de-identification software application called NLM Scrubber, which has been developed at the National Library of Medicine (NLM). The application has been developed so that clinical reports can be used in secondary scientific studies (i.e., for secondary use) without breaching patient privacy. Research on methods for protecting patient privacy and on the development of NLM Scrubber have been conducted by following the guidelines of and in compliance with HIPAA and the Privacy Act. In order to further develop and improve NLM Scrubber and assess its de-identification performance effectively, the investigators require the original / unredacted samples from all potential clinical report types and sources. To this end, NLM investigators have been collaborating with entities within NIH, namely, NIH Clinical Center, BTRIS, and NCI as well as outside entities, Kentucky State Registry administered by University of Kentucky and researchers from the University of Pittsburgh, who stated their interest in integrating NLM Scrubber to their application called Text Information Extraction System. These entities collect samples of various types of clinical reports for assessing and improving NLM Scrubber performance. However we also need access to the original data in order to assess potential problems and improve the accuracy of NLM Scrubber.