What do I de-identify?

The following are types of truncation that need to be performed on data fields appearing in CEDR. These operations must be performed by the researchers or data providers before the data files are transmitted to CEDR.

Death Certificate Information:

Cause of death information (or its subsequent ICD code) should be omitted when that information is derived from a death certificate or from an authority that has not agreed to allow redistribution of that information by CEDR. Currently, New York City and Puerto Rico do not allow release of death certificate information through CEDR.

Vital Status Dates:

Birth and death dates should be truncated to include only the year of occurrence. Other variables may also fall into this category. For example, a "last vital status date" variable that consists of the date when the subject is deceased or when the subject was last known to be alive must be treated appropriately and truncated to include the year only.

Employment Dates:

Potentially identifying employment dates should be truncated to the month and year. By truncating employment dates, the risk of someone being identified using these data is quite small.

Personal Identifiers:

Variables that provide the equivalent of an individual identifier should not be submitted to CEDR. An individual's badge number is one example in which an individual's identity could be derived and thus should be redacted from the file.

Next: Preparing The Data File Set