Monica Crotti asked 6 months ago Dear all,
I am quite new in the field and apologize in advance for the question. I would like to ask if the raw data file I open in MATLAB (i.e., c3d file) contains the personal information of the subject or they are already anonymized?
I saw there was a previous similar question but I am not sure I got the correct answer.
Thank you in advance,
Best regards
Monica
Duncan McLean Staff answered 6 months ago Hello Monica,
The subject of anonymization seems to be an ever changing landscape, with each institution having its own rules about what constitutes identifying information. For instance, the date and time the data was collected is encode into the exam file and for some institutions that is enough to consider the data identifiable. When the exam is still in the database the following data is found in the exam file:
- Sex
- Handedness
- Pathology
- Study
- Weight
- Height
- PI
- Kinarm location
- Notes
The process of exporting the data from the database adds the following fields:
- Name
- ID
- Age
- Date of birth
If you specify an anonymized export then only age is added to the exported file.
Any of the information I’ve listed above is available in MATLAB when you read the exam.
Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns in this area.
All the best,
Duncan
Monica Crotti replied 6 months agoDear Damcan, Thank you very much for your fast reply. When you mention database you mean the Dexerity E explorer?
Regarding MATLAB, id there any script for the anonymization or do you have any tips on how I could do it?
Thank you very much again,
Best regards
Monica