Anonymizing clinical notes before sending them to large language models is critical to protect patient privacy and comply with regulations.
This guide covers practical steps you can perform quickly in CleanMyPrompt to remove Protected Health Information (PHI) and reduce the risk of accidental leaks.
- Use the PII Scrubber: run the tool and review detected items in Audit mode.
- Remove or mask identifiers: replace SSNs, phone numbers, and MRNs with placeholders like [REDACTED-SSN].
- De-identify dates and locations: consider shifting dates or generalizing locations when necessary.
- Run Token Compression to reduce verbosity while preserving clinical meaning.
Always review the final output before sharing with external services. For formal HIPAA workflows, consult your compliance team.
Resources:
- PII Scrubber: /tools/remove-pii-from-text
- Token Compression: /tools/reduce-tokens-gpt4