I work in the health/well-being sector. The first rumblings I got about anonymising data was about three years ago What I shall call a healthcare provider stored results of tests on one computer. The IT police than decided the data should be anonymous so the department changed everybody's name to a reference code. Then on a laptop they put a lookup database to convert a person to a reference code and vice-versa. To me the amusing thing was that both systems had week passwords that many here would have cracked in under half-an-hour.

Part of the problem with health care is that the focus is on the condition and sometimes forgets the patient. I worry that anonymising data too much could jeopardise outcomes. I have been a cardiac patient for over a year and am awaiting surgery. Having been to numerous clinics, had many tests and read a number of books on the subject (Dr Google has far too much inaccurate and mis- information) it is clear the person is very relevant. The person's age, BMI, cholesterol, if they smoke, pre-existing conditions, etc. are all totally relevant. Yet elsewhere I have heard of those in charge wanting to delete some pre-existing conditions to increase anonymity> doing this could result in data mining giving data nonsense. This in turn could affect outcomes. To me a much more important issue in health care is security!