Genomic Privacy and Re-Identification Redux
New research published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences from Loukides et al. offers up a new method for preserving individual privacy while linking genomic and healthcare data. (“Anonymization of electronic medical records for validating genome-wide association studies.”) Daniel Cressey of Nature News and Katharine Gammon of Technology Review have concise (and free) summaries.
As we’ve written earlier (“Back to the Future: NIH to Revisit Genomic Data-Sharing Policy”), the ability to link – and to share – genotype and phenotype data (including medical records, particularly treatment and outcome data) will be essential to the development of the next generation of genomic research. One of the most common ways to link genotype and phenotype data is to combine genomic data with electronic medical records (EMRs). A particular patient’s EMR may contain everything from basic biographical information to family medical history to current diagnoses, including ICD codes. When it comes to associating genes with medical conditions, researchers rely on International Classification of Disease (ICD) codes to categorize individual patients by disease type and search for shared genetic variations that might play a causal role.
Cracking the Codes. Obviously identifying information (e.g., biographical information) is generally required to be removed pursuant to HIPAA regulations. ICD codes, however, are sometimes retained for purposes of genetic association research and, in some circumstances, a set of otherwise anonymous ICD codes pulled from an EMR can be traced backwards to identify the specific individual supplying the codes.
Personalized Toxic Tort Litigation?
Proving causation in toxic tort litigation has bedeviled practitioners and courts for decades. Current work in the field of toxicogenomics, however, is closing in on ways to refine the practice, enabling a much more targeted approach to analyzing how a particular environmental hazard may have caused a particular plaintiff’s injury. Move over, personalized medicine. Personalized toxic tort litigation may be just around the corner.
What is a Tort? Tort cases are those in which the plaintiff claims to have been injured by the defendant’s negligent (or, rarely, intentional) misconduct. The best known examples are automobile accident and medical malpractice cases. In a toxic tort case, the plaintiff (or, often, a whole class of plaintiffs) claims that a sickness or injury is the result of exposure to some dangerous substance that the defendant negligently or intentionally put into the environment—the hundreds of thousands of asbestos cases that have been filed, for example.
Causation and Toxic Torts. In all tort cases, the plaintiff must show that the defendant’s conduct was what the law calls the “proximate cause” of his or her injury. This is especially tricky in a toxic exposure case. The plaintiff must prove two kinds of causation: that the substance in question can cause the kind of injury the plaintiff suffered (general causation), and that the substance did in fact cause this plaintiff’s injury (specific or individual causation). Proving specific causation is usually where the difficulties for the plaintiff arise.
Weekly Twitter Roundup
Each week there are a number of stories and developments that, for one reason or another, don’t find their way into a full-length posting on the Genomics Law Report. Here’s a recap of what I was Tweeting this week @genomicslawyer:
- RT @geneticalliance: Register now for Genetic Alliance’s April Webinars! http://bit.ly/Zh553
- New GLR Post: More Myriad: Moving Beyond Single Gene Patents: http://bit.ly/9uqbHb
- RT @MishaAngrist: My thoughts on the Myriad ruling: http://bit.ly/aqzI1C A bit more on the wsj blog: http://bit.ly/9y8Dfm
-
Read the rest of this entry »
