Avoca Patient Encryption Solution (PES)
Avoca have a proven Encryption solution to install at your Trust which can feed in data from any Healthcare systems and transform that data into pseudonymised and anonymised versions, ready for sharing safely with other organisations.

Method
Avoca are integration experts so getting your data into our PES is included as part  of our service. PES can be integrated anywhere in your current data workflow.   For example directly off a PAS extract,  after local manipulation or from a warehouse extract. Once integrated our seamless solution will take in the data source and produce pseudonymised and anonymised versions of the data as an output ready for sharing. The inputs can be a consistent live feed or a bulk submission.

Avoca have a proven formula- a randomisation and scramble methodology engine to produce the pseudonymised and anonymised versions of the data, along with translation tables and an audit log so that the anonymised data can be connected back to the source if needed, i.e. creating pseudonymised data. However, if you have extra requirements or restrictions you wish to be incorporated into this logic this can be achieved in our customisation module.

Customisation Module
We will provide a configuration which has already been used on other Healthcare systems, meaning a minimal amount of Trust effort to get the system up and running. However this can then be customised. Avoca’s Pseudonymisation subject matter experts will work with you and your team to capture all of your business requirements and advise on how they can be achieved using our Pseudo Solution. For example a past requirement has been to filter records that meet certain criteria so that only relevant geographical data is shared with the corresponding health authority.

Proven Solution
As a key delivery within the NPfIT Avoca were required to process and transform large healthcare datasets, including pseudonymised and anonymised versions. This is where we designed and developed our unique Patient Encryption Solution (PES). The pseudonymised and anonymised outputs were vigorously tested and completed successfully. The data content varied between projects and covered a range of healthcare delivery points including Acute and Metal Health, proving that the PES is robust yet adaptable.

Government Guidelines
The guidelines published within the Information Governance Toolkit state that all Trusts should have access to pseudonymised and anonymised versions of their data by March 2011. This is to fit in with the laws established in the Data Protection Act as well as to follow the Caldicott principles, where the amount of personal data available should be the minimum required for that data’s purpose. However, this is more complicated than it seems, as there is a need both to keep the data integral and coherent between all the source files, and to create a secure record of what has been transformed. Avoca’s PES will remove all of these complications.