Overview

The Electronic Health Information Laboratory (EHIL) was formed in 2005 at the CHEO Research Institute and is headed by Dr. Khaled El Emam.

EHIL has a research program devoted to facilitating the sharing of electronic health information for secondary purposes while protecting the privacy of patients and the identity of providers. EHIL develops technology to facilitate health data sharing, including data synthesis methods, de-identification methods and secure computation methods to allow public health surveillance and analysis without compromising privacy. The different methods are suitable under different circumstances and constraints, from individual-level data release, to on-going surveillance, and to interactive remote analysis.

EHIL’s research spans theoretical work (for example, developing mathematical models and metrics of re-identification risk), empirical work (for example, evaluations of our models and metrics through simulations and controlled studies), applied work (for example, evaluations in real world settings), and knowledge translation (building software tools, instruments, and education through presentations, webinars, and workshops).

The research team at EHIL participates in policy development efforts and gets actively involved in regulatory reform consultations. Furthermore, the lab has one spin-off company, Replica Analytics, that is commercializing the results of the research work.