1.0 Introduction

1.1 Overview

Anonymization, according to the International Organization of Standardization (ISO), is the process that removes the association between the identifying data set and the data subject. Pseudonymization is a particular type of anonymization that both removes the association with a data subject, and adds an association between a particular set of characteristics relating to the data subject and one or more pseudonyms. This enables a process of supplying an alternative identifier, which permits a patient to be referred to by a key that suppresses his/her actual identification information. The purpose of this Transaction is to describe a framework for including Pseudonymization Services in Use Cases that require the use of dummy or pseudo references to specific patients or providers. Pseudo-identifiers are intended to allow accessibility to clinical information, while safeguarding any information that may compromise the privacy of the individual patient or provider. Using pseudo-identifiers can assist in compliance with HIPAA regulations regarding suppression of patient identification information.

This Transaction can be used in conjunction with HITSP/TP22 Patient ID Cross-Referencing. The operation of the Pseudonymization Services in the context of the PIX Interface is described in the present document.

Use Cases for patient identification suppression are described in Section 2.1, Context Overview.

1.2 Copyright Permissions

2009 ANSI. This material may be copied without permission from ANSI only if and to the extent that the text is not altered in any fashion and ANSIs copyright is clearly noted.

IHE materials used in this document have been extracted from relevant copyrighted materials with permission of Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) International. Copies of this standard may be retrieved from the IHE Web Site at www.ihe.net.

Certain materials contained in this Interoperability Specification are reproduced from HL7 Version 2.5 with permission of Health Level Seven, Inc. No part of the material may be copied or reproduced in any form outside of the Interoperability Specification documents, including an electronic retrieval system, or made available on the Internet without the prior written permission of Health Level Seven, Inc. Copies of standards included in this Interoperability Specification may be purchased from the Health Level Seven, Inc. Material drawn from these standards is credited where used.

1.3 Reference Documents

This section provides a list of key reference documents and background material. If you are already familiar with this information, proceed to Section 2.0.

A list of key reference documents and background material is provided in the table below. These documents can be retrieved from the www.hitsp.org Web Site.

Table 1-1 Reference Documents

Reference Document	Document Description
HITSP Acronyms List	Lists and defines the acronyms used in this document
HITSP Glossary	Provides definitions for relevant terms used by HITSP documents
TN900 - Security and Privacy Technical Note	TN900 is a reference document that provides the overall context for use of the HITSP Security and Privacy constructs

1.4 Conformance

This section describes the conformance criteria, which are objective statements of requirements that can be used to determine if a specific behavior, function, interface, or code set has been implemented correctly.

1.4.1 Conformance Criteria

In order to claim conformance to this construct specification, an implementation must satisfy all the requirements and mandatory statements listed in this specification, the associated HITSP Interoperability Specification, its associated construct specifications, as well as conformance criteria from the selected base and composite standards. A conformant system must also implement all of the required interfaces within the scope, subset or implementation option that is selected from the associated Interoperability Specification.

Claims of conformance may only be made for the overall HITSP Interoperability Specification or Capability with which this construct is associated.

1.4.2 Conformance Scoping, Subsetting and Options

A HITSP Interoperability Specification must be implemented in its entirety for an implementation to claim conformance to the specification. HITSP may define the permissibility for interface scoping, subsetting or implementation options by which the specification may be implemented in a limited manner. Such scoping, subsetting and options may extend to associated constructs, such as this construct. This construct must implement all requirements within the selected scope, subset or options as defined in the associated Interoperability Specification to claim conformance.

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