Location Data in i2b2

[Kellie Walters]

Does anyone have an approach for including information about patient home location in i2b2? 

We recognize a research need for this, but have not been able to overcome the privacy concerns of allowing someone to query by locations smaller than state. We have kicked around a few ideas like only using 3-digit zip, only loading data for zips with large numbers of patients, etc. 

Has anyone been able to come up with an approach that was palatable to privacy officers?

Thanks,

Kellie Walters, MPH
Interim Associate Director, Informatics and Data Science
NC TraCS Institute
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill