Privacy Protection of Sexually Transmitted Infections Information from Chinese Electronic Medical Records

Objectives To formulate an efficacious approach for safeguarding the privacy information of electronic medical records. Design Chinese patient electronic medical record text information. Setting The Chinese Renal Disease Data System database. Participants 3,233,174 patients between 1 Jan. 2010 and 31 Dec. 2023. Main outcome measures Annotated patient privacy fields and the effectiveness of privacy protection

We have developed an automated tool named EPSTII, designed to protect the privacy of patients’ sexually transmitted infection information within medical records. Through the refinement of keywords and the integration of expert knowledge, EPSTII currently achieves a 100% accuracy and recall rate. Our privacy protection measures have reached a 99.5% success rate, ensuring the utmost protection of STI patients’ privacy. As the first large-scale investigation into privacy leakage and STI identification in Chinese electronic medical records, our research paves the way for the future development of patient privacy protection laws in China and the advancement of more sophisticated tools.

The EPSTII method demonstrates a feasible and effective approach to protect privacy in electronic medical records from 19 hospitals, offering comprehensive insights for infectious disease research using Chinese electronic medical records, with protocols tailored for accurate STI data extraction and enhanced protection compared to traditional methods. Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. Funding Statement This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2021YFC2500200) and the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2023YFC27062305). This work was supported by Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University. We did not use generative AI in any portion of the manuscript writing. Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: This study received approval from the Medical Ethics Committee of Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University (approval number: NFEC-2019-213), with a waiver for patient informed consent due to its retrospective design. Additionally, it was approved by the China Office of Human Genetic Resources for Data Preservation Application (approval number: 2021-BC0037). I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable. Yes Footnotes We have rectified the list of authors. In a prior commit, we misinterpreted the author configuration guidelines for the medRxiv Web edition. In the most recent version, we have re-uploaded the precise author information. We offer our sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused by this error. Data Availability All data produced are available online at The Chinese Renal Disease Data System database