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reporting, unique identifier

In public health, a system that uses information such as the person's birth date and part of their identification number (in the u.s., the social security number) to create a unique code that is reported instead of a name. It is an alternative to named reporting that provides some of the surveillance benefits of reporting by name, such as the elimination of duplicate reports, while reducing privacy concerns by avoiding use of a person's name. This system is used with hIV testing for example in maryland and texas.