Institute:Office of National Coordinator (ONC) Workforce Training Curriculum
Component:The Culture of Health Care
Unit:Privacy, Confidentiality, and Security
Lecture:Definitions of privacy, confidentiality, and security
Slide content:How Governor Weld Was Identified 9.1 Figure: The overlapping data enabled identification of the Governor. (Adapted from Sweeney, 1997). 21
Slide notes:This slide demonstrates how Governor Weld was identified. On the left is the so-called de-identified state employee health database, which included state employees ethnicity, visits to health care providers, diagnoses, procedures, medications, and charges. It also contained ZIP codes, dates of birth, and gender. The Cambridge voter registration database included name, address, registered party affiliation, and the same ZIP codes, dates of birth, and gender. Governor Weld was one of those eighty-seven percent who had a unique combination of ZIP code, date of birth, and gender. Sweeney took Welds voter registration information and then accessed his entire medical information. 21