TY - JOUR
T1 - Analyzing Medical Research Results Based on Synthetic Data and Their Relation to Real Data Results
T2 - Systematic Comparison From Five Observational Studies
AU - Reiner Benaim, Anat
AU - Almog, Ronit
AU - Gorelik, Yuri
AU - Hochberg, Irit
AU - Nassar, Laila
AU - Mashiach, Tanya
AU - Khamaisi, Mogher
AU - Lurie, Yael
AU - Azzam, Zaher S
AU - Khoury, Johad
AU - Kurnik, Daniel
AU - Beyar, Rafael
N1 - ©Anat Reiner Benaim, Ronit Almog, Yuri Gorelik, Irit Hochberg, Laila Nassar, Tanya Mashiach, Mogher Khamaisi, Yael Lurie, Zaher S Azzam, Johad Khoury, Daniel Kurnik, Rafael Beyar. Originally published in JMIR Medical Informatics (http://medinform.jmir.org), 20.02.2020.
PY - 2020/2/20
Y1 - 2020/2/20
N2 - BACKGROUND: Privacy restrictions limit access to protected patient-derived health information for research purposes. Consequently, data anonymization is required to allow researchers data access for initial analysis before granting institutional review board approval. A system installed and activated at our institution enables synthetic data generation that mimics data from real electronic medical records, wherein only fictitious patients are listed.OBJECTIVE: This paper aimed to validate the results obtained when analyzing synthetic structured data for medical research. A comprehensive validation process concerning meaningful clinical questions and various types of data was conducted to assess the accuracy and precision of statistical estimates derived from synthetic patient data.METHODS: A cross-hospital project was conducted to validate results obtained from synthetic data produced for five contemporary studies on various topics. For each study, results derived from synthetic data were compared with those based on real data. In addition, repeatedly generated synthetic datasets were used to estimate the bias and stability of results obtained from synthetic data.RESULTS: This study demonstrated that results derived from synthetic data were predictive of results from real data. When the number of patients was large relative to the number of variables used, highly accurate and strongly consistent results were observed between synthetic and real data. For studies based on smaller populations that accounted for confounders and modifiers by multivariate models, predictions were of moderate accuracy, yet clear trends were correctly observed.CONCLUSIONS: The use of synthetic structured data provides a close estimate to real data results and is thus a powerful tool in shaping research hypotheses and accessing estimated analyses, without risking patient privacy. Synthetic data enable broad access to data (eg, for out-of-organization researchers), and rapid, safe, and repeatable analysis of data in hospitals or other health organizations where patient privacy is a primary value.
AB - BACKGROUND: Privacy restrictions limit access to protected patient-derived health information for research purposes. Consequently, data anonymization is required to allow researchers data access for initial analysis before granting institutional review board approval. A system installed and activated at our institution enables synthetic data generation that mimics data from real electronic medical records, wherein only fictitious patients are listed.OBJECTIVE: This paper aimed to validate the results obtained when analyzing synthetic structured data for medical research. A comprehensive validation process concerning meaningful clinical questions and various types of data was conducted to assess the accuracy and precision of statistical estimates derived from synthetic patient data.METHODS: A cross-hospital project was conducted to validate results obtained from synthetic data produced for five contemporary studies on various topics. For each study, results derived from synthetic data were compared with those based on real data. In addition, repeatedly generated synthetic datasets were used to estimate the bias and stability of results obtained from synthetic data.RESULTS: This study demonstrated that results derived from synthetic data were predictive of results from real data. When the number of patients was large relative to the number of variables used, highly accurate and strongly consistent results were observed between synthetic and real data. For studies based on smaller populations that accounted for confounders and modifiers by multivariate models, predictions were of moderate accuracy, yet clear trends were correctly observed.CONCLUSIONS: The use of synthetic structured data provides a close estimate to real data results and is thus a powerful tool in shaping research hypotheses and accessing estimated analyses, without risking patient privacy. Synthetic data enable broad access to data (eg, for out-of-organization researchers), and rapid, safe, and repeatable analysis of data in hospitals or other health organizations where patient privacy is a primary value.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85090062116&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.2196/16492
DO - 10.2196/16492
M3 - Article
C2 - 32130148
SN - 2291-9694
VL - 8
JO - JMIR Medical Informatics
JF - JMIR Medical Informatics
IS - 2
M1 - e16492
ER -