What happens to encrypted health card numbers?

Owned by Sara Latour (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Oct 20, 2020 by Emily Martens
1 min read

In an effort to allow our researchers to pursue the maximum utility of their data collected through the Ontario Brain Institute (OBI) funded Integrated Discovery Programs, we are implementing the capability to link research and clinical data with health administration data.

The methodology that we have put in place allows this linkage of data to be carried out without the transfer of health card numbers to OBI or Brain-CODE. A secure algorithm is used to encrypt health card numbers at the point of collection and entry into the browser at the research institutions, and only the encrypted number is then transferred to Brain-CODE. As a result, OBI never receives unencrypted health card numbers and cannot decrypt the numbers they receive. This linking of datasets using encrypted health card numbers will enable investigators on Brain-CODE to access aggregated datasets for a much richer scientific profile of their participants for research.