title: Evaluation of PHI Hunter in Natural Language Processing Research.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We introduce and evaluate a new, easily accessible tool using a common statistical analysis and business analytics software suite, SAS, which can be programmed to remove specific protected health information (PHI) from a text document. Removal of PHI is important because the quantity of text documents used for research with natural language processing (NLP) is increasing. When using existing data for research, an investigator must remove all PHI not needed for the research to comply with human subjects' right to privacy. This process is similar, but not identical, to de-identification of a given set of documents.
  
  
  METHODS
  PHI Hunter removes PHI from free-form text. It is a set of rules to identify and remove patterns in text. PHI Hunter was applied to 473 Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) text documents randomly drawn from a research corpus stored as unstructured text in VA files.
  
  
  RESULTS
  PHI Hunter performed well with PHI in the form of identification numbers such as Social Security numbers, phone numbers, and medical record numbers. The most commonly missed PHI items were names and locations. Incorrect removal of information occurred with text that looked like identification numbers.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  PHI Hunter fills a niche role that is related to but not equal to the role of de-identification tools. It gives research staff a tool to reasonably increase patient privacy. It performs well for highly sensitive PHI categories that are rarely used in research, but still shows possible areas for improvement. More development for patterns of text and linked demographic tables from electronic health records (EHRs) would improve the program so that more precise identifiable information can be removed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  PHI Hunter is an accessible tool that can flexibly remove PHI not needed for research. If it can be tailored to the specific data set via linked demographic tables, its performance will improve in each new document set.
authors.affiliation: Andrew Redd, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at the University of Utah and a statistician in the IDEAS Center at the VA Salt Lake City Health Care System in Salt Lake City, UT.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Redd
authors.affiliation: Steve Pickard, MBA, is a data analyst in the IDEAS Center at the VA Salt Lake City Health Care System in Salt Lake City, UT.
authors.forename: Steve
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pickard
authors.affiliation: Stephane Meystre, MD, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at the University of Utah and a Research Investigator in the IDEAS Center at the VA Salt Lake City Health Care System in Salt Lake City, UT.
authors.forename: Stephane
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Meystre
authors.affiliation: Jeffrey Scehnet, PhD, is a VINCI Staff member at the VA Salt Lake City Health Care System in Salt Lake City, UT.
authors.forename: Jeffrey
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Scehnet
authors.affiliation: Dan Bolton, MS, is a statistician in the IDEAS Center at the VA Salt Lake City Health Care System in Salt Lake City, UT.
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bolton
authors.affiliation: Julia Heavirland, MA, is a research coordinator in the IDEAS Center at the VA Salt Lake City Health Care System in Salt Lake City, UT.
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Heavirland
authors.affiliation: Allison Lynn Weaver, MPH, LADC, is an analyst at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Baltimore, MD.
authors.forename: Allison Lynn
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Weaver
authors.affiliation: Carol Hope, PharmD, MS, is a postdoctoral fellow in the IDEAS Center at the VA Salt Lake City Health Care System in Salt Lake City, UT.
authors.forename: Carol
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hope
authors.affiliation: Jennifer Hornung Garvin, PhD, MBA, RHIA, CTR, CPHQ, CCS, FAHIMA, is an Associate Professor at the University of Utah and a core research investigator in the IDEAS Center at the VA Salt Lake City Health Care System in Salt Lake City, UT.
authors.forename: Jennifer Hornung
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Garvin
mesh_terms: D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003219:Confidentiality; D057286:Electronic Health Records; D006801:Humans; D009323:Natural Language Processing; D012984:Software; D014481:United States; D014493:United States Department of Veterans Affairs
keywords: human subjects; informatics; protected health information; research ethics