Protecting Patient Privacy: A Deep Dive into Data Masking Techniques
The healthcare niche stands at a crossroads these days. On one end, they’ve been adopting the use of electronic health records (EHRs). These records have opened the doors to easier patient data access. On the other end, there is a surge of concerns regarding keeping this information private.
Thus, it raises an important question – how do we balance data accessibility with privacy? In this article, we’ll delve into the world of data masking and the techniques used there. We’ll cover them one by one to reconcile this dilemma.
The Rising Demand for Data Security in Healthcare Institutions
Healthcare continues to evolve its services through digitization. As a result, there has been an uptick in digital medical data. EHRs have seen widespread use across different institutions. Thus, it makes patient data far more accessible than before. However, it does bring some problems to the table.
The most notable problem here is that the patient’s data can be taken away by outside entities. Fortunately, data masking techniques present themselves as the best solution to combat this problem.
Demystifying Data Masking’s Complexities
Most of the data security methods emphasize encryption which keeps data safe during transit. Data masking on the other hand focuses on keeping data safe when it is at rest. What it does is that it conceals sensitive information within the database. Making it harder for unauthorized entities to gain access to them.
Data masking methods such as data swapping aim to alter the original data. This is crucial in concealing the patient’s key information while retaining its utility. Unlike encryption, data masking allows authorized users to use the data for other purposes such as:
Benefits of Data Masking in Healthcare
Data masking can provide healthcare organizations with a robust defense against data breaches. Here are the benefits that these organizations can reap from data masking:
1. Patient Privacy Protection
Data masking helps safeguard patient’s key information such as names, addresses, and other crucial data. This information is then obscured by masking it with fictitious data. This is essential if healthcare providers want to maintain the patient’s trust and comply with privacy regulations.
2. Compliance with HIPAA
HIPAA mandates that every healthcare organization must protect the patient’s valuable information. Data masking is a key element in ensuring compliance with the privacy rules of HIPAA. This requires the de-identification of the patient’s information.
3. Lowers Risk of Data Breaches
Data breaches in healthcare organizations can lead to a variety of consequences. They can range from financial fraud to identity theft. Through masking sensitive data, the risk of data breaches is reduced. That’s because even if the data gets compromised, it is useless without decrypting the obscured information.
4. Facilitates Secure Development and Testing
Healthcare applications and databases need thorough testing and development. Data masking allows developers and testers to work with real data. Real data that won’t violate patient privacy. As a result, it brings more effective quality assurance processes without compromising data security.
5. Data Portability
If ever, there are cases where patients may want to share their health records with healthcare providers. Data masking ensures the safe sharing of these health records. That’s because it ensures that only authorized individuals can access the patient’s true information.
6. Reduces Impact of Data Breaches
Implementing data masking techniques can reduce the blow of data breaches or regulatory fines. It is noted that investing in data protection measures can help healthcare organizations save more. After all, no organization wants to deal with a hefty price tag to resolve any damage caused by data breaches.
7. Data Analytics and Research
Healthcare organizations often need to share their patient’s data for use in research and analytics. Data masking allows them to do these procedures without disclosing valuable patient data. Therefore, they can proceed with conducting their research while preserving their patient’s data privacy.
What Are the Data Masking Techniques?
In this section, we’ll cover the Data Masking Techniques that you can use to secure your patient’s data. Here they are as listed:
1. Data Pseudonymization
Data pseudonymization allows you to switch an original data set with aliases. For example, you can use a fake but sensible name to cover a patient’s real name. The process is at least, reversible as it de-identifies data but still enables later use. That means pseudonymized data can still be re-identified if necessary.
2. Data Anonymization
This method allows you to alter data in a way that it can no longer be associated with an individual. The main goal of anonymization is to protect a patient’s privacy and confidentiality. This ensures that healthcare organizations can use the data for tasks such as research and analytics.
3. Lookup Substitution with use of Table
Adding a lookup table provides alternative values to the actual data. Thus, it allows medical organizations to use real data in a test environment. They won’t have to worry about exposing the actual data in the process.
4. Data Encryption
It is suggested that you should encrypt data so that they can only be accessed through a password. The encrypted data is unreadable while it is encrypted. But once you use the right password, that’s when the data can be viewed. Encryption is best used as a complementary protection to other data masking techniques.
5. Data Redaction
If the data isn’t needed for QA or other important purposes, you can replace the data with generic values to redact them. As a result, there will be no realistic data present once you are using them in a test environment.
6. Data Averaging
You can also use averages or aggregates as a data masking technique. You can replace all values in the table with the average value. One good example is masking a patient’s medical record with generic information.
7. Data Shuffling
If you wish to retain uniqueness while you mask data, you can use data shuffling instead. The real values will remain but the data are assigned to different elements.
8. Date Switching
If the data in question involves dates that you want to keep a secret, you can use date switching instead. For example, you can mask the patient’s birthdate by changing their day of birth or month of birth.
FAQs
1. What makes Data Masking different from Encryption?
While both of them can protect sensitive information – they are different in the following ways:
- Encryption focuses more on protecting data that’s in transit or during exchange
- Data Masking secures data while it is at rest; while intact in its storage space
2. What regulations apply to Healthcare Data Masking?
Regulations such as HIPAA mandate the protection of critical information. Regular audits ensure that the organization is compliant with its mandates.
3. Does Data Masking Reduce Data Utility?
Quality masking uses little to no invasive techniques to preserve utility while preserving data privacy. The key here is to strike a balance between the techniques and the approach to data protection.
Data Masking Techniques: Keys to Protecting Your Patient’s Data
As digital transformation keeps moving forward in the healthcare space, data masking will become more valuable over time. By embracing these masking techniques, healthcare institutions can harness the power of data to good use. They can use it to elevate care for patients while preserving patient’s data privacy.