Gutenberg Open Science: A RESTful interface to pseudonymization services in modern web applications

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://doi.org/10.25358/openscience-8003

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DC Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Lablans, Martin	-
dc.contributor.author	Borg, Andreas	-
dc.contributor.author	Ückert, Frank	-
dc.date.accessioned	2022-10-14T07:26:20Z	-
dc.date.available	2022-10-14T07:26:20Z	-
dc.date.issued	2015
dc.identifier.uri	https://openscience.ub.uni-mainz.de/handle/20.500.12030/8018	-
dc.description.abstract	BACKGROUND: Medical research networks rely on record linkage and pseudonymization to determine which records from different sources relate to the same patient. To establish informational separation of powers, the required identifying data are redirected to a trusted third party that has, in turn, no access to medical data. This pseudonymization service receives identifying data, compares them with a list of already reported patient records and replies with a (new or existing) pseudonym. We found existing solutions to be technically outdated, complex to implement or not suitable for internet-based research infrastructures. In this article, we propose a new RESTful pseudonymization interface tailored for use in web applications accessed by modern web browsers. METHODS: The interface is modelled as a resource-oriented architecture, which is based on the representational state transfer (REST) architectural style. We translated typical use-cases into resources to be manipulated with well-known HTTP verbs. Patients can be re-identified in real-time by authorized users' web browsers using temporary identifiers. We encourage the use of PID strings for pseudonyms and the EpiLink algorithm for record linkage. As a proof of concept, we developed a Java Servlet as reference implementation. RESULTS: The following resources have been identified: Sessions allow data associated with a client to be stored beyond a single request while still maintaining statelessness. Tokens authorize for a specified action and thus allow the delegation of authentication. Patients are identified by one or more pseudonyms and carry identifying fields. Relying on HTTP calls alone, the interface is firewall-friendly. The reference implementation has proven to be production stable. CONCLUSION: The RESTful pseudonymization interface fits the requirements of web-based scenarios and allows building applications that make pseudonymization transparent to the user using ordinary web technology. The open-source reference implementation implements the web interface as well as a scientifically grounded algorithm to generate non-speaking pseudonyms.	en_GB
dc.description.sponsorship	DFG, Open Access-Publizieren Universität Mainz / Universitätsmedizin	de
dc.language.iso	eng	de
dc.rights	CC BY	*
dc.rights.uri	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/	*
dc.subject.ddc	610 Medizin	de_DE
dc.subject.ddc	610 Medical sciences	en_GB
dc.title	A RESTful interface to pseudonymization services in modern web applications	en_GB
dc.type	Zeitschriftenaufsatz	de
dc.identifier.doi	http://doi.org/10.25358/openscience-8003	-
jgu.type.dinitype	article	en_GB
jgu.type.version	Published version	de
jgu.type.resource	Text	de
jgu.organisation.department	FB 04 Medizin	de
jgu.organisation.number	2700	-
jgu.organisation.name	Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz	-
jgu.rights.accessrights	openAccess	-
jgu.journal.title	BMC medical informatics and decision making	de
jgu.journal.volume	15	de
jgu.pages.alternative	Art. 2	de
jgu.publisher.year	2015	-
jgu.publisher.name	BioMed Central	de
jgu.publisher.place	London	de
jgu.publisher.uri	http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12911-014-0123-5	de
jgu.publisher.issn	1472-6947	de
jgu.organisation.place	Mainz	-
jgu.identifier.pmid	25656224
jgu.subject.ddccode	610	de
opus.date.modified	2018-09-05T09:14:11Z
opus.subject.dfgcode	00-000
opus.organisation.string	FB 04: Medizin: Institut für Med. Biometrie, Epidemologie und Informatik	de_DE
opus.identifier.opusid	51981
opus.importsource	pubmed
opus.institute.number	0424
opus.metadataonly	false
opus.type.contenttype	Keine	de_DE
opus.type.contenttype	None	en_EN
opus.affiliated	Lablans, Martin
opus.affiliated	Borg, Andreas
opus.affiliated	Ückert, Frank
jgu.publisher.doi	10.1186/s12911-014-0123-5	de
jgu.organisation.ror	https://ror.org/023b0x485	-
Appears in collections:	DFG-OA-Publizieren (2012 - 2017)

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