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Pseudonymization Mechanisms

Meaning

Technical procedures that replace direct personal identifiers, such as a patient’s name or medical record number, with a reversible, artificial identifier or pseudonym, allowing a dataset to be processed and analyzed without directly revealing the individual’s identity. Unlike irreversible anonymization, this mechanism retains the ability for the clinician or researcher to re-link the data to the original patient if clinically necessary, while providing a layer of privacy protection for secondary use.