NCHS Data Linkage Program: Exploring Privacy Enhancing Technologies for Data Linkage

Thomas M. Menino Convention & Exhibition Center 

The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) has a long-established data linkage program that links NCHS health survey data with vital and other administrative records to expand the analytic potential of both the survey and administrative data. Integrating survey and administrative data produces rich analytic resources that can be used to support public health surveillance, evidence-based policymaking, and patient-centered outcomes research. However, combining data from multiple sources can also increase disclosure risk. To mitigate this risk, disclosure avoidance strategies can be applied to the input files prior to linkage or the output files post-linkage. The NCHS Data Linkage Program has been exploring the use of privacy enhancing methodologies, such as privacy preserving record linkage (PPRL) to address input privacy and synthetic data generation to address output privacy. This talk will provide an overview of NCHS' implementation and evaluation of selected PPRL methodologies and a describe a pilot project to generate statistically valid synthetic linked data files. The talk will conclude with a discussion of next steps in NCHS' exploration of privacy enhancing techniques.

data linkage

privacy enhancing technologies

synthetic data

privacy preserving record linkage