Keeping things confidential
New technology which analyses health information while preserving privacy

The fear of our medical records falling into someone else’s hands has worried Australians for decades.

Now, thanks to a project run by the Preventative Health Flagship, the usefulness of our medical data can be maximised for research without breaking patient confidentiality.

Researchers have developed a series of sophisticated techniques for analysing data and presenting the output of these analyses in a way that retains the necessary standards of privacy and confidentiality as defined by data owners while still providing the analyst with all the information they require to formulate policies and make decisions.

The Privacy-Preserving Analytics (PPA) work grew out of the Health Data Integration project (see UPDATE story on data mining) and Flagship researchers at CSIRO Mathematical and Information Sciences have now begun developing a software prototype using the new techniques.

It is envisaged that the PPA techniques could eventually be applied to a range of fields, including the finance sector.
 

UPDATE Home

Message from the Director

Data mining

CSIRO Confidential

Colorectal cancer

Health forecasting

Meet the Flagship Advisory Committee

About this email

The Preventative Health Flagship is a CSIRO initiative and part of the National Research Flagships program that aims to deliver scientific solutions to advance Australia's most important national objectives. One of the largest scientific initiatives ever mounted in Australia, it aligns closely with the Federal Government's National Research Priorities. The initiative brings together our national research resources to deliver breakthroughs in fields ranging from healthcare to light metals and the environment.

Please feel free to forward it to those in your organisation who would be interested in receiving future newsletters.

If you do not wish to receive this electronic newsletter from the Preventative Health Flagship, please reply to this message with the word "unsubscribe" in the subject line. Alternatively, please contact PreventativeHealth@csiro.au or telephone us on +61 2 9490 8006 to request the removal of your email address.

This E-Newsletter is a publication of CSIRO Communications. It does not purport to be comprehensive or to render professional advice. All material in this publication is subject to copyright. For permission to reproduce any part or all of an article, please contact the editor.