Personal Health Information and Sensitive Data: Practical Examples of Storage, Security, Data Sharing, and Beyond Online
Managing health research data is a daunting task. It seems like it requires you to become a lawyer to understand the ethics, privacy, and legal requirements, become an IT professional to assess technical systems and security, and all of that on top of being a scientist and managing your research. How do you know when you're working with Personal Health Information or just health research data? Should you store data at the university or the hospital?
In this session we will discuss practical examples and workflows for storing, managing, and sharing health sciences research data. We’ll talk about data storage, data sharing in a team and managing access, data sharing and deposit to support long-term retention, and more! We’ll discuss how to assess personal health data, how to de-identify it, and how to know whether something is anonymous or just coded.
If you’re looking to start a new research project with personal health information, or information on best practices for health sciences research, this session is for you.
By the end of this session, participants will be able to:
- Identify the risk level of a data set
- Determine the identifiability of a data set
- Understand the options available at McMaster for managing personal health information
- Locate resources and support for managing personal health information
Details: Any preparatory work for the session can be found on its information page. This virtual workshop will be recorded and shared on the same page, and discoverable via the Sherman Centre's Online Learning Catalogue.
Certificate Eligibility: This workshop is eligible for the Sherman Centre's certificate program. For more information, visit scds.ca/certificate-program. It is also eligible for the Canadian Certificate for Digital Humanities. To learn more, visit ccdhhn.ca or contact scds@mcmaster.ca.
- Date:
- Wednesday, February 17, 2027
- Time:
- 10:00am - 11:00am
- Time Zone:
- Eastern Time - US & Canada (change)
- Online:
- This is an online event. Event URL will be sent via registration email.
- Audience:
- McMaster + Community
- Categories:
- DRI Training Research Data Management SCDS Sponsored Events Workshops
THE SHERMAN CENTRE FOR DIGITAL SCHOLARSHIP
The Sherman Centre for Digital Scholarship connects people, builds community, and enables research to support and advance digital scholarship. We work with students, faculty, staff, and community collaborators at McMaster and beyond to support research, teaching, learning, and knowledge mobilization through digital scholarship.
Send us an Email
View our Website
Subscribe to the SCDS Newsletter
CODE OF CONDUCT
The Sherman Centre and the McMaster University Libraries are committed to fostering a supportive and inclusive environment for its presenters and participants. As a participant in this session, you agree to support and help cultivate an experience that is collaborative, respectful, and inclusive, as well as free of harassment, discrimination, and oppression. We reserve the right to remove participants who exhibit harassing, malicious or persistently disruptive behaviour.
We strive to make this event accessible to everyone. Where possible, sessions are recorded and include live captioning, and we will share recordings, slides, and transcripts afterward so you can revisit the content at your own pace. Because these materials are provided, and to help protect participant privacy and consent, we ask that attendees do not use AI note-taking or automated recording tools (such as Otter.ai, Fireflies.ai, Zoom AI Companion, or similar apps) without prior permission from the organizers.
Please refer to our code of conduct webpage for more information.
Danica Evering is a Research Data Management Specialist grounded in curiosity and a deep commitment to ethics. They braid together broad fluency in social practice art, healthcare, community research, data, and systems development to provide comprehensive RDM services. Danica is available to help students, postdocs, faculty, and staff with RDM through the data lifecycle—Data Management Plans, storage and backup, data security, data sharing. Danica fosters active interest in research data management across disciplines, with a knack for engaging researchers who might not even realize they have data to manage. Outside of work they sing in a choir, play PC games, maintain an art writing practice, grow a garden, contribute Wikipedia articles, and run.
Isaac Pratt is a Research Data Management Specialist. Isaac holds a PhD in Anatomy & Cell Biology, and has research experience is in biomedical science and social science, specifically in Physics, Biological Anthropology, and Anatomy. He is available to help with any RDM related questions including data management planning, data storage & backup, data security, and data deposit and sharing. Isaac is a member of MREB and can help with questions about data management for ethics and sensitive data.
The Sherman Centre for Digital Scholarship supports McMaster students, faculty, and staff, as well as anyone curious about digital scholarship. From research and teaching to training and technical support, we’re here to help bring digital projects to life at every stage!
Send us an Email
View our Website
Book a Consultation
Subscribe to the SCDS Newsletter
