Types of Information

Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) can provide access to several different types of information:

• identifiable (Article 4(1)) - containing details that identify individuals.
• pseudonymised (Article 4(5)) - about individuals but with identifying details (such as name or NHS number) replaced with a unique code.
• anonymised - about individuals but with identifying details removed.
• aggregated - anonymised information grouped together so that it doesn't identify individuals.

NHS Digital is the trading name of the Health and Social Care Information Centre, which is the national provider of information, data and IT systems for commissioners, analysts and clinicians in health and social care in England, particularly those involved with the National Health Service (England).

The Scottish Government and NHS Scotland have had a national eHealth Strategy  in place for many years to support key health policy aims such as improving the quality of care, enabling shared decision-making with patients and integrating health and social care. The future of this is outlined in the Digital Health and Care Strategy. 

IDENTIFIABLE– ‘personal data’ means any information that relates to an identifiable person, the person can be directly or indirectly identified in particular by reference to an identifier. This definition from the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) provides for a wide range of personal identifiers to constitute personal data, including name, identification number, location data or online identifier, reflecting changes in technology and the way organisations collect information about people. 

PSEUDONYMISED - eg key-coded – can fall within the scope of the GDPR depending on how difficult it is to attribute the pseudonym to aparticular individual (ICO). It is data about individuals but with identifying details (such as name or NHS number) replaced with a unique code e.g. Community Health Index (CHI) number, patient identity number/reference.

ANONYMISED - Information is not identifiable, any information that may be identifiable is removed, identity is concealed.This may be used for statistical reporting and/or research purposes.

AGGREGATED - data is anonymised information that is grouped together so that individuals cannot be identified. This again may be used for statistical reporting and/or research purposes.

Other Useful points:
Processing of Special Categories of Personal Data (Article 9) - i.e Processing of personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or

trade union membership, and the processing of genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person, data concerning health or data concerning a natural person's sex life or sexual orientation shall be prohibited.