For genes without an Arabidopsis homolog with a clear identifier, a unique identifier was created that was consistent with the gene function.
This includes not only data that contain clear personal identifiers, such as names, but also data that can indirectly identify an individual [ 8].
Because HCUP data is secondary administrative data without clear patient identifiers, it has been determined that the data is exempt from ethical approval.
Although the database is cleared of personal identifiers, it includes electronic information on patients at an individual level that can be tracked through time and includes demographics, physician defined diagnoses, prescription medications, cigarette smoking status, and death certificates.
Among the women's focus groups, sources of public identification, including medical alert bracelets, were discussed and perceived as very useful to have, as it was a clear and easy identifier of their health condition to others.
It is therefore clear that to generate globally unique identifiers (which allow processing across multiple data sources), identifiers local to data sets are not enough, and more contextual information is needed.
Two other measures mentioned were a) using clear coding conventions for cross-language identifiers, and b) the use of a central database for cross-linking identifiers which all languages had to refer to.
Importantly, using the gene name as an identifier, it is clear that multiple probesets are present for many genes but that these replicate probesets may not always generate similar detection rates.
However, our results suggest that there is no clear association between number of non-systematic identifiers per compound and ambiguity within the different databases.
However, what's less clear is whether or not developers can use another identifier as well (or in place of) the IDFA like the recently launched Open IDFA, for example.
